A 



^ 



CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL 



COMMENTARY 



THE BOOK OF GENESIS. 



A NEW TRANSLATION. 



j/G. MURPHY, D.D., T.C.D., 

PROFESSOR OP HEBREW, BELFAST. 



WITH A PREFACE 

By J. P. THOMPSON, D. D. 

NEW YORK CITY. 




%xxhifotx: 

WARREN F. DRAPER. 



BOSTON: GOULD & LINCOLN. NEW YORK: HUED & HOUGHTON. 

PHILADELPHIA: SMITH, ENGLISH, AND COMPANY. 
CINCINNATI: GEO. S. BLANCHABD & CO. 

1866. 



-3$^ 



3^ 






\ 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by 
WARREN F. DRAPER, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



andover : 

stereotyped and printed 

by w. p. draper. 



PREFACE 

TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. 



In introducing to the American public Dr. Murphy's Com- 
mentary on Genesis, I would commend it as a timely antidote 
to much of the negative and destructive criticism upon the 
Pentateuch which has so largely obtained in Germany, and of 
late in England also, rather than as a complete solution of 
the many and vexed questions in language, in science, and 
in history which pertain to the so-called " Books of Moses." 
The merits of Dr. Murphy's work are a nice critical analysis 
of the text, a candid consideration of all alleged difficulties, a 
common-sense view of the principles of interpretation, and a 
philosophical clearness and comprehensiveness in the statement 
of inference or of doctrine. It consists of an exact literal 
translation of such passages as contain either verbal or gram- 
matical difficulties, and of a critical and exegetical commen- 
tary, based upon the grammatical construction of the text, and 
framed in view of the best lights of modern criticism and 
science. Thus, in the narratives of the creation and the del- 
uge, our author unfolds step by step the literal meaning of the 
sacred writer, and evolves from the Hebrew a sense which well 
accords with the facts of astronomical and geological science. 
The philological considerations that, in describing the creation, 
the sacred writer "presents each change as it would appear to an 
ordinary spectator standing on the earth," that he notes " only 
obvious results," and " touches merely the heads of things," 
are the key to a method of interpretation which leaves the 



IV PEEFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. 

largest freedom to scientific inquiry. The author's use of the 
term " day," though too much restricted by literalism in his 
comment upon verse 5 of chapter L, finds all reasonable ex- 
pansion in the principle laid down under verse 12, that " there 
is a due proportion between the action and the time of the 
action, the creation to be developed and the time of the de- 
velopment.' ' 

In treating of the deluge, Dr. Murphy shows that all the 
requirements of the Hebrew text are met by the supposition 
of a flood which covered the portion of the earth's surface 
then known to man; and that "the sobriety and historical 
veracity of the narrative are strikingly exhibited in the moder- 
ate height to which the waters are said to have risen above the 
ancient hills." It is doubtful, however, whether it would re- 
lieve the difficulties pertaining to the account of the creation, 
were we there to limit the earth to " so much of the surface of 
our globe as was known by observation " in the time of Moses. 
This notion was pressed to an extreme by Dr. Pye Smith, in 
the supposition of a partial chaos in the region of the land of 
Eden. I do not understand Dr. Murphy, however, to limit 
the term " earth," in Gen. i. 2, any further than by insisting 
that " the desolation and disorder are limited in their range to 
the land, and do not extend to the skies." He lays down a 
true principle of interpretation when he says, further, that 
" along with the sky and its conspicuous objects, the land then 
known to the primeval man formed the sum total of the 
observable universe. These two terms — the heavens and the 
earth — have not even yet arrived at their full complement of 
meaning; and it was not the object or the effect of divine 
revelation to anticipate science on these points." 

It is enough for the purpose of silencing scientific, or rather 
unscientific cavils against the inspiration of Genesis, that we 
show there is no real contradiction, but a substantial agree- 
ment, between the Mosaic cosmogony and the established truths 
of physical science. Professor Dana has shown conclusively, 



PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. Y 

iii the closing chapter of his " Manual of Geology," that ei the 
order of events in the Scripture cosmogony corresponds essen- 
tially " with that which is deduced from the observations of 
science upon the crust of the earth. Yet while this general 
harmony of Genesis with geology is established, we may safely 
affirm, with another Christian scientist, that " the classification 
of the rocks is not yet in a condition to warrant us to believe 
it likely that any scheme will be found satisfactory, which 
claims to have discovered a complete parallelism between the 
ages of nature, as revealed to us in the fossiliferous strata, and 
the days of creation described in the first chapter of Genesis." 1 
In this indeterminate state of the question, it is enough that 
Dr. Murphy has established a reasonable harmony between 
his interpretation of the history of creation by Moses and the 
schedule of creation as furnished by geology. 

The sententious philosophy of the author is strikingly ap- 
parent in his comments upon " the great introductory sentence " 
of Genesis : " This simple sentence denies atheism ; for it 
assumes the being of God. It denies polytheism, and among 
its various forms the doctrine of two eternal principles, the 
one good and the other evil ; for it confesses the one eternal 
Creator. It denies materialism ; for it asserts the creation of 
matter. It denies pantheism ; for it assumes the existence of 
God before all things, and apart from them. It denies fatalism ; 
for it involves the freedom of the Eternal Being." A writer 
who is capable of such clear and discriminating thought ex- 
pressed in language so strong and compact, will be welcomed 
by American students of theology. 

The laws of interpretation laid down by Dr. Murphy in his 
Introduction, commend themselves equally by their simplicity 
and their good sense. It is the boast of the destructive criti- 
cism that it subjects the Old Testament to the same tests which 
it applies to other ancient documents ; but in point of fact, this 
criticism applies to the Bible the most arbitrary and exceptional 

i Dr. John Duns; Biblical Natural Science, I. 48. 



VI PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. 

methods. How many difficulties raised by Bishop Colenso 
against the authenticity of the Pentateuch would have been 
obviated by the simple principle that " we cannot found the 
slightest inference on a passage which we do not understand, 
or affirm a single discrepancy until we have made all reason- 
able inquiry whether it really exists, and what is its precise 
nature and amount " ! Thus Colenso's objection to Lev. viii. 
1-4, that the court of the tabernacle could not have contained 
the whole congregation, betrays his want of familiarity with 
Hebrew terms. 

" The congregation is simply a multitude assembled, a gath- 
ering or collection of people, without reference to organization 
or special appointment. With the definite article, it generally 
meant the whole body of the people. Hence every assembly 
was a congregation ; but every congregation was not an assem- 
bly. We may say the congregration of the assembly, but we 
do not say in Scripture language the assembly of the congrega- 
tion. 

" The word mo'ed means appointed or stated meeting time, 
and an appointed festival or convention held at that' time. It 
is the word constantly used in the phrase ' tabernacle of the 
congregation,' which is the tent of appointment or meeting, 
at the door of which all civil and sacred meetings were by 
appointment held. Now, putting the true equivalents for the 
three words edah, qahal, and mo?ed where they occur, the 
passage quoted stands thus : ' And gather thou all the assem- 
bly to the door of the tent of meeting. And Moses did as 
Jehovah commanded him, and the assembly was gathered into 
the door of the tent of the meeting.' Here, then, it appears 
the term in the original is the assembly, a select body, con- 
taining, not certainly the women and children, unless as idle 
spectators, nor even the main part of the able-bodied men of 
twenty years old and upwards, but the princes of tribes, the 
chiefs of houses, the elders, and probably the ' officers ' and 
some of the higher judges, and including a proportion of the 



PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. VII 

priestly tribe under these designations. The number of those 
who were regular members of this assembly, or of those who 
were actually in attendance on this occasion, we do not know. 
And thus it is utterly impossible for us to create an impos- 
sibility here, do or suppose what we will." 1 

Dr. Murphy reminds his readers that a meeting of parish- 
ioners is summoned and held in the vestry of the parish church, 
and legally transacts the parish business, though according to 
the Bishop of Natal " the vestry would only hold six abreast, 
and at that rate the parishioners would extend perhaps ten 
miles into space ! " Applying this common-sense view to the 
case in hand, he says : 

" Let us recollect that the court was fifty cubits wide, and 
that its gate was twenty cubits — twice the width of the door 
of the tent — or thirty-six feet wide. Now, with a tent-door 
of eighteen feet, and a court-entrance of thirty-six feet, only 
ninety feet apart, and a laver and an altar in the interval, 
what will a reasonable man, with some little practical experi- 
ence in public meetings, understand by being assembled ' at 
the door of the tent of meeting ? ' Obviously he will suppose 
such an assembly may be in any part of the square within the 
court or of the space in front of it which may be required for 
the convenience of the assembly. If you are told that a man 
is at your door, you suppose him, no doubt, to be within a 
foot or two of it ; but if you are told that a mob is at your 
door, you presently imagine that they may occupy not only 
the area, but the whole of the opposite street. How much 
more, if your door were eighteen feet wide, your area-gate 
thirty-six, and the multitude tenfold greater ! We read in 
Acts xiii. 44, that the next Sabbath-day came almost the whole 
city together to hear the Word of God ; and in xvii. 5, that 



i The nineteen alleged impossibilities of Colenso on the Pentateuch shown to he 
possible. By the Rev. James G. Murphy, LL.D., T.C.D. London, James Nisbit & 
Co. pp. 15, 10. 



VIII PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. 

they set all the city in an uproar, and assaulted the house of 
Jason. Here all the city was at the door of one house." 1 

These examples, taken from another work of our author, 
illustrate the principle laid down above, and expose the fallacy 
of much of the hypothetical criticism upon the Pentateuch. 
" In fact," says Dr. Murphy, " the argument of the school of 
critics to which Dr. Colenso belongs is built up of a series of 
surmises upon the ground of certain difficulties which they 
cannot solve. This is a beguiling sort of argument. He that 
deals in it is prone to forget the difference between the bearing 
of a probability or presumption on a supposition and on a 
conclusion. A second or third presumption in favor of a sup- 
position adds to its probability. But if one probable premise 
enter into our reasoning, the remotest conclusion can never 
rise above that probability. If two premises are only probable, 
every after-conclusion is less probable than either of them. 
On the other hand, an established fact outweighs a whole host 
of adverse presumptions, and ninety-nine undisputed state- 
ments are abundantly sufficient to sustain one that admits of 
some dispute." 2 

This general reasoning Dr. Murphy afterwards presses with 
the argumentum ad hominem against Colenso' s alleged incon- 
gruities in the account of the passover. 

" The Bishop knows a little of Hebrew ; but he is not what 
we should call a Hebrew scholar. He does not understand, 
or he does not know how to apply, the laws of Hebrew compo- 
sition. When the sacred writer spoke of midnight in the 
previous chapter [Exodus xi.] he was, let us admit, arrived at 
the 14th Abib in one line of the history. But then he had 
another to carry on, and so he goes back in the twelfth chapter 
to the 1st Abib to bring up this second line. And in the 
twelfth verse < this night ' means the night after the 14th 
Abib mentioned in the sixth verse. For the Hebrew writer 
always imagines himself at the time and place of the scene 

l Ibid. p. 17. 2 ibid. p. 81. 



PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. IX 

described, and therefore naturally uses this night in reference 
to the 14th day at which he has arrived in his directions. 
And besides, if this night were the night of the 14th, as the 
Bishop insists, how could directions be given on the 14th about 
what was to be done on the 10th ? Here is a man who is igno- 
rant of three common laws of Hebrew composition, or does not 
know how to apply them, presuming to criticize Moses, and 
only betraying the shallowness of his own knowledge or the 
precipitancy of his own judgment.' ' 

Dr. Colenso's arithmetical difficulties with regard to the 
duties and the apportionments of the priests are disposed of 
by Dr. Murphy with a combination of logic, learning, and wit 
that leaves the Bishop of Natal but little ground to stand upon. 
The following spicy paragraph concludes that portion of the 
discussion : 

" It seems a strange thing for a bishop to object to thirteen 
cities being given to the priestly family. Has he never heard 
of bishops' lands with towns built on them ? Surely, if they 
could not inhabit all the houses, they could let them to solvent 
tenants. This is the most frivolous objection we have ever 
met with, and especially from such a quarter. Most of our 
readers are acquainted with such things as bishops' palaces, 
revenues, lands, rentals, etc., and will not therefore be greatly 
astonished at thirteen towns with their suburbs for the whole 
future priesthood of Israel." 

A second general principle laid down by Dr. Murphy is, 
that " presumed contradictions or discrepancies in the book 
lie as well against the theory of a mechanical compilation from 
heterogeneous materials by a final redactor as against an orig- 
inal unity of authorship." The favorite argument of the de- 
structive school of critics is, that the discrepancies between 
the so-called Jehovistic and Elohistic elements in the Penta- 
teuch forbid the supposition of unity of authorship ; and hence 
the hypothesis that the Books of Moses were a compilation from 
distinct documents and traditions, to which an uncertain date 



X PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. 

is assigned, somewhere in the period between the Judges and 
the Babylonish exile. But even if the alleged discrepancies 
could be established — which Dr. Murphy by no means admits 
— the fact would weigh as well against unity of editorship as 
against an original unity of authorship. Indeed, a compiler or 
redactor of a later age might be expected to correct discrepan- 
cies which had crept into the original composition. And Dr. 
Murphy reasons conclusively that any possible hypothesis for 
the solution of the difficulties inherent in an ancient history 
which bears the general marks of antiquity, is sufficient to re- 
move the objection that the narrative is self-contradictory. We 
owe much to a writer whose critical learning is guided and 
applied by such strong common sense. 

Dr. Murphy has condensed his theory of inspiration into this 
pithy aphorism, — that the Bible is the Word of God, " with 
all the peculiarities of man and all the authority of God." 
This same thought he has amplified in the pamphlet so often 
quoted, — 

" The inspiration of the written Word of God we consider 
simply explained by the following words from Rev. ii. 1 : 
" Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus, write." Here the 
Lord dictates, and John writes. The mode in which this takes 
place is not our concern ; the fact is. The thoughts, purposes, 
commands, doctrines, promises of God, pass through the chan- 
nel of John's mind, and come to expression by his tongue or 
by his pen. Hence the Scriptures are for the matter and the 
form in one respect the Word of God, — displaying the unity, 
harmony, and infallibility of its lofty source, — and in another 
respect the word of man — exhibiting all the peculiarities of 
his mother tongue and his individual mind. The simple de- 
velopment of this proposition will explain all those phenomena 
of Scripture by which it ' proves itself to be in the primary 
sense the Word of God, and at the same time, in the secondary 
sense, the word of the actual writer." 

But it is not within the province of this brief Introduction 



PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. XI 

to analyze all the principles of the author, nor to discuss his 
opinions upon disputed questions. It only remains to add a 
few words concerning the author himself. 

Dr. Murphy was born in 1808, in the village of Comber, 
County Down, about seven miles from Belfast. After the 
usual scholastic training he entered Trinity College, Dublin, 
where he soon attained the technical rank of a " scholar," 
which entitled him to certain important privileges. In 1836 
he was ordained to the ministry in the Presbyterian Church, 
and commenced his parochial labors in the town of Ballyshan- 
non, County Donegall, where he remained till 1841, when he 
removed to Belfast as Head Master of the Royal Academical 
Institution. He was no less distinguished as a mathematician 
than for his classical attainments. 

In 1847 he was appointed by the General Assembly of the 
Presbyterian Church to his present office as Professor of He- 
brew in the Assembly's College at Belfast. This college, 
which nearly corresponds to an American theological semi- 
nary, has a Faculty consisting of Dr. Cooke, Professor of 
Sacred Rhetoric and Catechetics ; Dr. Edgar, Professor of 
Systematic Theology ; Dr. Killen, Professor of Church History 
and Pastoral Theology ; Dr. Murphy, Professor of Hebrew and 
other Oriental Languages ; Dr. Gibson, Professor of Natural 
Theology and Christian Ethics ; and Dr. J. L. Porter, Profes- 
sor of Biblical Literature. Several of these gentlemen are 
well known in the United States. Drs. Edgar and Gibson 
have visited this country, and Dr. Gibson's narrative of the 
" Year of Grace in Ireland," published by Messrs. Gould & 
Lincoln, has had an extensive circulation ; Dr. Killen' s vol- 
ume on " The Ancient Church " has been republished by Mr. 
Scribner of New York ; Dr. Porter, formerly of Damascus, 
has contributed several articles to the Bibliotheca Sacra and to 
various Biblical encyclopedias. 

The Assembly's College has, upon an average, about one 
hundred students in theology in its several classes. It is 



XII PKEFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. 

under the jurisdiction of the General Assembly, though each 
Professor receives an endowment from the government of 
two hundred and fifty pounds in addition to students' fees. 

Adjacent to this institution is Queen's College, which has 
an average of four hundred students, in arts, medicine, law, 
and agriculture. This college furnishes yearly a large num- 
ber of students to the theological college ; the two institutions 
working in entire harmony. 

Dr. Murphy received from Trinity College the honorary 
degree of LL. D. He is thoroughly Irish in birth, in education, 
in ecclesiastical offices, and in literary labors and honors. In 
addition to the volume on Genesis herewith presented to the 
public, he has published a Hebrew Grammar for the use of his 
students, and has translated Keit's Commentary on Kings for 
Clark's Foreign Theological Library. He has now nearly 
completed his Commentary on Exodus. His view upon the 
most important point of Egyptian chronology is foreshadowed 
in a private note to the subscriber, as follows : " Adhering 
still to the Hebrew or Masoretic text of the Old Testament, I 
am constrained to stand by the Hebrew chronology until I 
meet with some experimentum cruets that will prove or dis- 
prove it." 

In character, Dr. Murphy has the simplicity of the true 
scholar and the devout and humble spirit of the true disciple 
of Christ. In introducing him to American students at the 
present period, it is not unimportant to add that he has 
shared the sympathy of his colleague, Dr. Gibson, for the 
United States during our struggle with the rebellion, and that 
as a friend of freedom and of the progress of humanity, he de- 
sires, " the prosperity of this country in all its noble and benefi- 
cent enterprises.' ' 

JOSEPH P. THOMPSON. 
New Yobk, Nov. 1866. 



AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 



An ancient writing, purporting to be continuous and handed down to us as the 
work of one author, is to he received as such unless we have good and solid reasons 
for the contrary. The Pentateuch is a hook exactly of this description, continuous 
in its form, and coming down to us as in the main the work of Moses. We may 
not give up this prima facie evidence without cause. In particular, we should 
require strong and cogent arguments to convince us that this interesting monu- 
ment of antiquity is, as some say, a dry and bare compilation, not even of document 
after document, but of selections from several later works all going over nearly 
the same ground, dovetailed into one another by a still later hand to form a fac- 
titious whole. For at first sight this seems to be a mere stretch of fancy, in which 
criticism has overmastered philosophy. A scheme so intricate in form and fantastic 
in conception cannot be accepted, unless it stand on impregnable grounds. 

The main grounds on which this theory rests appear to be two, — first, certain 
discrepancies and difficulties that are supposed to be adverse to the unity and early 
origin of the work ; and second, certain characteristics of style, by which the se- 
lections are detected and restored to their original authors, who are then seen to 
be consistent in themselves, though still inconsistent with one another. And the 
result to which this theory leads, is, that the Pentateuch is neither given by inspi- 
ration of God nor historically valid, but rather a mechanical compilation of a 
later age from heterogeneous materials, the discrepancies of which the compiler 
had not either the sense to perceive or the taet to eliminate. 

Before we accept a conclusion fraught with such results, it is obvious that we 
are bound to be fully assured, both that the premises are in themselves true, and 
that they are able to bear all the weight that is laid on them. Hence three ques- 
tions come before us for adjudication. 1. Of what nature must the difficulties of 
statement and style be to constrain us to the adoption of this theory ? 2. What is 
the amount of the difficulties actually involved in the statements of the book, and 
what are the peculiarities of style that characterize its different parts'? 3. Are 
these difficulties of statement and diversities of style of such a nature that they 
could only arise from a medley of the kind supposed 1 Do the former disturb the 
unity and early origin of the book, as well as its historical value and divine au- 
thority ? Do the latter enable us to assign its several parts to their respective 
authors ? 

The first of these is the question of principle. It involves the axioms or postu- 
lates on which the whole discussion turns. It is freely granted that the presence of 
plain contradictions or impossibilities is sufficient to overturn the historical credit 
or the early origin of a work. But they do not prove the diversity of authorship 



XIV AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 

propounded in the above theory. It is acknowledged on all sides that some one 
hand at length put the Pentateuch together in its ultimate form. And if a final 
redactor did not see the presumed contradictions or did not regard them, neither 
might the original author. This part of the theory, therefore, has no support from 
the supposed existence of impossibilities. 

The appearance, however, of discrepancies or difficulties that fall short of the 
contradictory or impossible, cannot be allowed to have these effects. So far from 
seeming strange, they are to be expected in a work more than three thousand 
years old, containing a brief history of at least twenty-two centuries, and dealing, 
not in abstract or general assertions, but in concrete and definite statements. 
They rather confirm than weaken its claim to antiquity and genuineness, so long 
as they stand within the bounds of possibility. If there be any possible mode of 
reconciling the seemingly incompatible statements, the contradiction is removed. 
If a second mode can be pointed out, the contradiction is still more remote. For 
several solutions of an apparent contradiction are so far from counteracting that 
they sustain one another in repelling it to a vanishing distance. Not one of them 
may be the real missing link in the chain of facts, which by hypothesis, be it 
remembered, is unknown ; but they all combine to show that the events in question 
may occur, not in one, but in a variety of ways. 

It must, we think, be conceded that all the diversities of style that have been 
or can be discovered, apart from contradictions or impossibilities, do not suffice to 
prove a work to be a medley from different authors. They cannot in the nature 
of things have the force of demonstration. Having the authors, we may make 
out characteristics of style. Having a foregone conclusion as to certain passages, 
we may trace and tabulate their peculiarities. But all this may proceed from 
diversity of topic, mental state or design in the same author, and scarcely affords 
the color of a presumption for the intermingling of pieces from different authors. 

The full discussion of this question belongs to another place. But meanwhile 
we conclude, that, as contradictions may occur in the work of one author, and 
certain diversities in the use of words may appear in different pieces of the same 
writer, these phenomena are not sufficient of themselves to substantiate the whole 
theory under consideration. The existence, however, of absolute contradictions 
or impossibilities in its statements deprives a work of independent historical value 
or great antiquity of origin. 

The second question regards the actual contents of the book. "What are the 
difficulties it actually presents, and the diversities of style it exhibits 1 To ascer- 
tain these facts, we must examine the book, and determine as far as possible its 
real meaning. This is especially necessary in a work that has come down to us 
from a hoary antiquity, composed in a language that has not been spoken for 
eighteen centuries, and in a style which, though regular and systematic, is yet 
remarkably simple and primitive. We shall be doing great wrong to this vener- 
able document, if we ascribe to it statements for which its own words, fairly inter- 
preted, do not vouch. We cannot found the slightest inference on a passage which 
we do not understand, or affirm a single discrepancy until we have made all 
reasonable inquiry whether it really exists, and what is its precise nature and 
amount. 

The following work is a contribution towards this important branch of the 
inquiry. It is an attempt to apply the laws of interpretation to the first book of 
the Pentateuch. The interest attached to the book of Genesis can hardly be exag- 



AUTHOR'S PREFACE. XV 

geratcd. It contains the records of the present condition of the earth and of the 
human race from its origin to the time of Moses. It answers the fundamental 
questions of theology, of physics, of ethics, and of philology. The difficulty of its 
exposition is proportioned to the antiquity of its origin and the loftiness of its 
theme. The present attempt to elucidate its meaning is neither perfect in its exe- 
cution nor exhaustive in its results. But it makes some important advances in 
both these directions, as the author conceives ; and therefore it has been submitted 
to public examination. 

The work consists of a translation of the original, and a critical and exegetical 
commentary, the whole forming a full interpretation of the sacred text. With 
the exception of the first chapter, which is extremely literal, the translation is a 
revision of the authorized version. On a close comparison of this version with the 
original, we find everything to admire in the purity of the English, and little to 
amend in the faithfulness of the rendering. The emendations introduced aim at 
a nearer approach to the original meaning in some passages, and in others to the 
original mode of thought and expression. Alterations of the former kind are of 
essential moment ; in making which the author has endeavored to divest his mind 
of any questionable preconception that might warp his judgment. The minor 
changes consist chiefly in adhering more closely to the original order of words, in 
rendering the same word in Hebrew as often as possible by the same word in Eng- 
lish, and in occasionally substituting a word of English origin for one derived 
from the Latin. In expressing the sense of the original, the author has been 
greatly aided by the English version, and is fully persuaded that no independent 
version more adapted to the genius of the English lauguage will ever be produced. 
Nevertheless, even this part of his work will, he hopes, be found to have thrown 
considerable light on the meaning of the book that did not appear in the English 
version. 

The commentary is the complement of the translation. It is critical and exe- 
getical ; but so far as these qualities are distinct, much more attention has been 
paid to the latter. The formation of an improved text is not within the scope of 
the present work. The edition of Van der Hooght, the textus receptus of the Old 
Testament, is sufficient for all ordinary passages, and has been followed here. 
Peculiarities of form and syntax have been only sparingly discussed, as they are 
all noted and explained in our grammars and lexicons. The higher criticism, or 
the interpretation of the text, has been the chief study of the author, to which all 
other matters have been made subsidiary. It has been his endeavor to bring out 
the meaning of the original according to the philosophy of language, thought, and 
history. 

Eor this purpose a few general principles of interpretation have been laid down, 
which, it is hoped, will meet with universal acceptance. These have been applied 
to elicit as far as possible the precise meaning of the sacred writer, the order of 
thought, and the order of time. A careful study of the method of composition has 
enabled him to throw much light on the logical order of the narrative, and the 
physical order of the events related. 

Many difficulties of great magnitude, such as those respecting the six days' 
creation and the deluge, have disappeared in the mere process of interpretation. 
None of any importance known to the author are left without a solution. Other 
solutions might in some cases have proved more acceptable to some minds. But 
he has acted to the best of his judgment in presenting what seemed to him most 



XVI AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 

probable, and has contented himself with the reflection that a possible solution 
serves to remove the appearance of contradiction, while it is in itself of no historical 
value. 

Variety of style has been certainly found in the different parts of the book ; but 
then it has been only such as the same author might display according to the sub" 
divisions of his plan and subject. It cannot be demonstrably or even probably 
ascribed to a medley of passages from different authors. 

If these results stand the test of impartial criticism, the scheme of a congeries 
of pieces put together by a later hand with all its consequences falls to the ground, 
so far as the book of Genesis is concerned. The right interpretation of the re- 
maining books of the Pentateuch will, the author believes, be attended with the 
same result. The fundamental proposition regarding the Pentateuch, with which 
we started, will then remain undisturbed in all its integrity, before even a single 
particle of the positive evidence by which it is supported has been adduced. 

The fair interpretation of these books, however, serves much more than the mere 
negative purpose of obviating difficulties. It presents before the mind in its native 
connection the wonderful harmony of this ancient book with itself, with history, 
and with physical and metaphysical science. It proves a volume, extant long 
before science was born, and couched in the language of common life, to be in no 
respect at variance with the conclusions of astronomy and geology, while it is the 
fountain-head of theological and ethical philosophy. These disclosures are the 
meet sequel of the external evidence by which its genuineness, credibility, and di- 
vine authority are attested. This body of external and internal evidence demon- 
strates that it is, what it purports in every page to be, the revelation of the early 
ways of God with man. 

The growing sense of the fundamental concord that must subsist between the 
book of revelation and the book of nature renders the just interpretation of the 
earliest portion of the former a matter of the deepest interest to the man of scien- 
tific and reverent spirit. The records of that last creation, limited in time and 
space, to which we ourselves belong, of that moral declension in the history of 
man described as the fall, of that mental revolution known as the confusion of 
tongues, of those physical changes connected with the deluge and the overthrow 
of Sodom and Amorah, can never cease to engage the attention of the reflective 
mind. 

Whether the author will be permitted to proceed any further in the interesting 
field of investigation which he has traced in the preceding pages, depends entirely 
on the will of Providence. Meanwhile the present work is complete in itself; and 
the author commits it to the world, humbly praying that a blessing may attend its 
perusal, and sincerely thanking the God of all grace for that measure of health 
which has enabled him to complete his task. 

J. G. M. 



INTRODUCTION, 



THE BIBLE. 

I. — ITS CONTENTS. 

The Bible, or the Book of God, is a collection of writings com- 
menced not later than 1500 B.C., and completed about 100 a.c. It is 
called by Irenaeus (b. 120 a.c.) #eiai ypa<f>al } Divine Writings, and by 
Clemens Alexandrinus (d. 220 A.C.) ypacficu, at #eo7n/evoToi ypacpal, 
Scriptures, the God-inspired Scriptures. Hence it has been designated 
the Canon, or the Canonical Scriptures, because, including all and only 
the writings given by inspiration of God, it is the canon or rule of 
faith and practice for man. It is divided into the Old and New Tes- 
taments, % 7ra\ata, BiaSrjKr] and rj Kaivrj 8. The former is written in 
Hebrew proper (except Jer. x. 11 ; Ezra iv. 8, vi. 18; vii. 12-26; 
and Dan. ii. 4, vii., which are in Chaldee) ; the latter in Greek. 
There are sixty-six pieces in the Bible, of which thirty-nine are in the 
Old Testament, and twenty-seven in the New. The Jews, however, 
reckon twenty-two books in the Old Testament, corresponding to the 
number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet, according to the following 
arrangement : Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy ; 
Joshua, Judges with Ruth, Samuel (i. and u.), Kings (i. and n.), 
Isaiah, Jeremiah with Lamentations, Ezekiel, the twelve minor prophets 
(Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Mikah, Nahum, Habaccuc, 
Zephaniah, Haggai, Zekariah, Malaki) ; Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song 
of Songs, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra with Nehemiah, and 
Chronicles (i. and ii.). The books of the New Testament are the 
Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the Acts of the Apostles ; 
the fourteen epistles of Paul (to the Romans, Corinthians i. and n., 
Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians i. and n., 
Timothy i. and n., Titus, Philemon and the Hebrews), that of James, 

1 



2 INTRODUCTION. 

the two of Peter, the three of John, that of Jude ; and the Revelation 
of John. 

Besides the division of the Old Testament into twenty-two books, 
there is another very important distribution of it into three groups of 
writings, called in the New Testament the Law, the Prophets, and the 
Psalms or the remaining sacred writings, 6 vo/x-os ko.1 7rpocfi7JTaiKaX 
tyakfMH, biawtt* taWM «T^'n» The Law contains the five books of 
Moses, the five fifths of the law, rriifin I'ijasin ftTSan, corresponding to 
which is the Greek 7revTa.T€vxos, Pentateuch, the five-volumed book. 
The Prophets contain eight books : the former prophets d^iiaan b^aa, 
the writers of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings ; the latter d'Wns* '3, 
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the twelve minor prophets. The re- 
maining books, called by the Greek fathers ayi6ypa<j>a, Hagiographa, 
or Holy Writings, are the three poetical books, Psalms, Proverbs, and 
Job, the five wfett), rolls, Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesi- 
astes, Esther ; the prophet Daniel ; and the historical books, Ezra, 
Nehemiah, and Chronicles. This threefold division of the Old Testa- 
ment Canon is a historical, not a logical, distribution of its contents. 
It exhibits three successive collections of sacred documents : the first, 
formed and indeed mainly composed by Moses ; the second, containing 
the earlier and latter prophets, made in the time of Jeremiah, and 
probably under his direction, with the exception of the last three of 
the minor prophets, which were added to this class of writings after- 
wards, because they were strictly prophets of Judah ; the third, con- 
sisting of the remaining sacred books, and formed in the main by 
Ezra. This collection contains two books, Ruth and Lamentations, 
which, though reckoned in the Jewish enumeration of books as appen- 
dages of Judges and Jeremiah respectively, are put here either for the 
convenience of being grouped with the other three of the five rolls, or 
because, like some other books of this collection, they were not before 
formally introduced into the Canon. The prophet Daniel appears 
in this class, probably, because he spent all his life in the court of 
Babylon. 



THE BIBLE. 



II. — ITS SUBJECT. 



The whole Bible is a record of the ways of God with man. Hence 
it begins with the creation of man, traces the development and points 
out the destiny of the race. In order to be so compendious, and at the 
same time remarkable for the minuteness of its details, it deals largely 
in the enunciation of general principles and the statement of leading 
facts. It dwells with becoming fulness on God's gracious and merci- 
ful dealings and bearings with man. And hence the scene of the 
narrative, which at the beginning was coextensive with man, gradu- 
ally narrows to Sheth, to Noah, to Shem, to Abraham, to Isaac, to 
Jacob, almost to Judah, and then suddenly rebounds to its original 
universality of extent. 

The ways of God with man take the particular form of a covenant. 
A covenant is an agreement between two parties, with conditions to 
be fulfilled and corresponding benefits to be realized on both sides. 
The very nature of a covenant implies that the parties to it are intelli- 
gent ; and the very existence of two rational beings in sensible relation 
with each other involves a covenant expressed or understood. Hence 
the Bible is fittingly termed the testament or covenant, testamen- 
tum fcedus, ha^rJKrj, rwfi. It exhibits the relation between God 
and man, the essentially intelligent and the naturally intelligent, the 
natural condition of this great covenant, and the conduct of the two 
parties concerned. This covenant, which is originally a covenant of 
works, securing to man the benefit on performance of the condition, 
has soon to become a covenant of grace, guaranteeing the blessing, 
notwithstanding the breach of the compact, that some, at least, of the 
fallen race may reap the benefit of its provisions. It becomes, in sooth, 
a promise, wherein God, the one party, remaining faithful to his side 
of the covenant, sees to it that it is upheld in the integrity of its re- 
wards and even its conditions, notwithstanding, and even on account 
of, the failure of the other party. Hence the covenant takes a special 
form, the provisions of which are narrowed to the seed of Abraham. 
Now the book of the covenant at its opening takes broad ground, but 
in consequence of the privileges of Israel, it is sometimes supposed to 
have become exclusive in its offers of mercy. This, however, cannot 
be the true state of the case, for two reasons : First, we find ourselves 



4 INTKODUCTIOK 

again at the close of the book on the common ground of all humanity 
having an invitation to return to God. And this very issue is dis- 
tinctly expressed in all the forms of the covenant with Abraham, Isaac, 
and Jacob. Thus it is written, " In thee, and in thy seed, shall all 
the families of the earth he blessed" (Gen. xii. 3 ; xxii. 18 ; xxvi. 4; 
xxviii. 14). Secondly, God never revoked his covenant with Adam 
or with Noah : it remains in force still ; and the special covenant with 
Israel, so far from annulling it, was expressly designed to make it 
available again for the whole human family. The Old Testament, 
therefore, maintains its universality throughout, though in sad succes- 
sion the Cainites, the Gentiles, the Shemites, the Ishmaelites, the 
Edomites retired into forgetfulness and abandonment of that covenant 
of mercy which was made for them, and thereby soon ceased to have a 
place in the record of God's intercourse with man. A sentence or a 
paragraph suffices to dismiss from notice these wilful breakers of the 
covenant. The stream of the narrative is thus straitened, not in God, 
but in man. But at length, by virtue of the atoning work of Christ 
and the renewing work of his Spirit, the old covenant emerges again 
as the new covenant, in all its primeval and perpetual universality, and 
with such new powers and provisions as to carry the offer and ulti- 
mately the possession of salvation to the whole human race. 



III. — ITS STRUCTURE. 

The Bible is a book of growth. It is a tree of knowledge. It 
grows from a seed to a full-sized plant. In this way alone is it suited 
to man. For as the individual advances from infancy to full-grown 
manhood, so the race of Adam had its infancy, its boyhood, its man- 
hood, and will have its ripe and full age. Such a progress of the 
human race required a progressive book of lessons. Hence we are 
not to expect every truth to be fully revealed in the earliest books of 
Scripture, but only such germs of truth as will gradually develope 
themselves into a full body of revealed doctrine, and in such measure 
as man can receive and may require at each stage of his career. The 
Bible, therefore, grows not only in the continual accessions made to 
its matter, but also in the doctrines which it adds from time to time to 



THE BIBLE. O 

the system of sacred truth, and in the more and more developed state 
in which all its doctrines are presented. 

The Old Testament is as clearly distinguished in point of matter 
from the New as in regard to time. The one was closed at least four 
hundred years before the other was commenced. The former con- 
tains an exposition of the dealings of God with man down to the times 
of Malaki, together with a remarkable series of predictions concerning 
the destiny of the human race, and especially concerning the coming 
of the Messiah to accomplish by his own obedience unto death the 
redemption of man from the curse of sin, and so eventually, by the 
quickening of his Spirit, raise the objects of his redeeming love to the 
light, life, and liberty of the children of God. The latter records the 
fulfilment of this prophecy by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
his standing in the stead of man, rendering a perfect obedience for 
him, undergoing the sentence of death for him, rising again and enter- 
ing upon eternal life, and making all-prevalent intercession on his be- 
half. It further indicates the realization of another set of predictions 
in the calling and qualifying of his apostles and evangelists, and the 
reconstruction of his church under these new circumstances in a new 
form and with new life and power of expansion. It then opens up 
with greater clearness, in a new series of prophetic announcements, the 
future history of the church, and especially the second coming of the 
Messiah, to raise the dead, judge the quick and the dead, and so close 
the development of the present world. 

As the whole Bible is divided into the Old and the New Testaments, 
so the Old Testament itself naturally falls into two parts. The history 
of man in relation with God is carried on from the beginning of Gen- 
esis to the end of the second book of Kings, where it is brought to an 
end with an account of the downfall of the last remnant of the chosen 
people. As the thread is here clearly broken off, no less in sorrow, 
indeed, than in anger, the sacred writer who recounts the events sub- 
sequent to this point of time, in order to give a connected view of the 
course of affairs, goes back to the beginning of human things, and 
draws out another thread of history, which is continued to the close of 
the Old Testament times. This we have in the book of Chronicles, 
which begins with the words, Adam, Sheth, Enosh, gives a rapid 
sketch of the narrative already furnished, with some additional partic- 



6 INTRODUCTION. 

ulars, and then dwells with great minuteness on the history of David's 
line and kingdom. These are now traced through the captivity, and for 
some time after, in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, which form the 
continuation of Chronicles. This new line of history is contained in 
the Hagiographa, where also we find the historical book of Esther, be- 
longing to the same period. This may, therefore, be called the second 
volume of Old Testament history. 

The state of things during this period is marked by two character- 
istic features, — the dependence of the people of God on a heathen 
power, and the approach on the part of the heathen to some acknowl- 
edgment of the true God. From the date of the captivity, 606 B.C., 
the people of God remained in subjection to the universal monarchy 
of the day. After the lapse of seventy years in exile they were per- 
mitted by this power to return to their own country, and govern them- 
selves according to the laws of their national polity. Under the 
Maccabees they asserted their independence for a time ; but they were 
soon obliged to seek the alliance and acknowledge the supremacy of 
the Roman empire. In consequence of this state of dependence on 
the one hand and protection on the other, the old antagonism between 
Israel and the nations was in some measure broken down. The 
heathen power was induced to recognize, to some extent, the true 
God, and pay some respect to his people. A preparation was thus 
made for the reception of the nations into the church of God on the 
advent of the Messiah. The transactions of the period, therefore, form 
a moment in the progress of things from the separation of the Jew 
and the Gentile to the breaking down of the partition between them 
in the New Testament times. They are the natural sequel of the 
unfaithfulness of the peculiar people, and the meet preparative for the 
calling of the Gentiles. 

The previous portion, again, of the Old Testament is naturally and 
historically divided into the Law and the Prophets. But these 
two parts are more closely connected with each other than the whole 
which they compose with the remainder of the Old Testament. The 
Pentateuch describes the constitution, the Prophets the development, of 
the people rendered peculiar by special covenant with God. They 
form a complete whole, in which the Pentateuch is the basis, the early 
prophets the historic, and the later prophets the prophetic develop- 



THE BIBLE. 7 

ment, until the end corresponds in scope and grandeur with the be* 
ginning. 

Of the Pentateuch itself, the first book, Genesis, is preparatory to 
the other four. These record the growth of the family of Jacob, or 
Israel, into the peculiar people ; the constitution of the theocracy ; the 
giving of a code of laws moral, ritual, and civil ; the conquest of part 
of the land promised to the forefathers of the nation ; and the comple- 
tion of the institutions and enactments needed for a settled condition. 
For this order of things the first book furnishes the occasion. 



IV. — ITS STYLE. 

Another striking feature of this literature is its style. It is written 
in the language of common life. It was designed for the whole race 
of man. , In its earliest period there was no philosophic activity, and 
therefore no scientific style. If it had been then composed in a newly- 
invented diction, it would have had no intelligent reader. Even in the 
palmiest days of philosophy, a work in the philosophic form of expres- 
sion would have been available only for a very limited class of readers. 
Moreover, if the Spirit that animated the sacred writers had deviated, 
for the sake of superior accuracy, or bare laterality of statement, from 
the language of common life, he would have chosen, not the phrase- 
ology of philosophy, — which varies necessarily with the progress of 
discovery, and, philosophers themselves being witnesses, is but an in- 
adequate and provisional vehicle for thought or truth, — but the tongue 
of angels, which alone would have been adequate to express the abso- 
lute truth of things. But if he had done so, even the philosophic stu- 
dent, not to speak of the ordinary reader, would have been incompetent 
to understand, and indisposed to accept, a mode of thought and speech 
so far transcending the feeble idioms of his own mind and voice. Men 
versed in the dialects of the schools have been slow to make full 
acknowledgment of the necessity and the wisdom of the popular style 
in the composition of the Bible ; and no small amount of the misinter- 
pretation to which it has been exposed, has arisen from neglecting the 
usage of speech among the people for whom it was written, and insen- 
sibly applying to it a usage with which our modern education has made 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

us familiar. It ought not to be forgotten that the early written lan- 
guage of the Greeks and Romans was not philosophical, but popular. 



V. — ITS AUTHOR. 

. This body of literature is unparalleled in the history of the world 
for the majesty of its subject, the symmetry of its structure, the har- 
mony of its parts, and the slow march of its growth. The subject, we 
have seen, is the history of the dealings of God with man. It is there- 
fore altogether unique in its kind. Other ancient records have com- 
menced with the age of gods ; but they have soon subsided into the 
every-day doings of ordinary mortals. But the one sacred topic is here 
pursued with undeviating consistency throughout the whole volume. 
Even the collateral books of Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Canticles, and 
Ecclesiastes contribute to the elucidation of this lofty theme. No 
other literature in the world has invariably adhered to the same high 
argument. The wonderful symmetry of its structure is obvious even 
from the general analysis we have now given of its contents. But it 
becomes more and more conspicuous as we examine more minutely 
into the details of the whole fabric. And yet there is a native artless- 
ness, an unlabored simplicity, in its manner, which enhances the charm 
of regularity. It is not the starched precision of dry science or art, 
but the substantial unity of nature and life. The harmony of parts 
which the Holy Scripture exhibits, results from the harmony of the 
reality which it faithfully portrays. The productions of different 
authors are almost equally different in their topics ; and even when 
they expatiate on the same theme, they only display the idiosyncrasies 
of the several minds from which they proceed, and are incapable of 
being harmonized in their contents, or arranged into a uniform system. 
Even the collected works of a single human author are found to 
betray marks of inconsistency, vacillation, and disorder. But the 
truths, which the Scripture presents in a natural or historical form, 
have proved as capable of methodical treatment and systematic 
arrangement as the facts of the physical and metaphysical world. The 
gradual advance by which the Bible has grown to its full maturity is 
no less in contrast with the miscellaneous accumulations of human lit- 



THE BIBLE. 9 

erature. Consisting of sixty-six pieces, composed by no less than forty 
authors, scattered over a period of at least sixteen hundred years, partly 
in the language of Shem, and partly in that of Japheth, among an eastern 
people of agricultural and pastoral habits, not distinguished for philo- 
sophic attainments, yet rising to the loftiest theme of human thought, 
exhibiting at every stage of its progress a uniform plan, and maintain- 
ing a constant unanimity of testimony and doctrine, this volume proves 
itself to be the result of no mere human authorship. 

(a) This antecedent indication of a divine authorship, arising from 
the inspection of the book itself, is found to be accompanied with all 
the subsequent evidences of the fact, which are naturally to be ex- 
pected, (b) The uniform testimony of the honest and intelligent 
fathers and members of the Christian church, from the times of the 
apostles down to the present day, is embodied in the phrases, " Divine 
Writings," " God-inspired Writings," which we have already quoted 
from Irenaeus and Clemens Alexandrinus. Gainsayers have ap- 
peared, and still do appear, who take exception to the dogma of inspi- 
ration in itself, or in some of the forms in which it has been presented 
by theologians. But, taken even as a whole, their adverse judgment 
must be acknowledged to be of small account against the preponderat- 
ing testimony of ecclesiastical writers of all ages, (c) This collection 
of writings also uniformly claims to be the Word of God, both in direct 
terms and incidental statements. The Great Prophet and Teacher 
says, " Search the Scriptures ; for in them ye think ye have eternal 
life: and they are they which testify of me" (John v. 89). He 
opened the understandings of his disciples, " that they might understand 
the Scriptures " (Luke xxiv. 45). Paul designates the Old Testa- 
ment " the oracles of God " (Rom. iii. 2), and Peter declares that "the 
prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of 
God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost " (2 Peter i. 21). 
Paul says of himself, " If any man think himself to be a prophet or 
spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you 
are the commandments of the Lord" (1 Cor. xiv. 37). And John 
solemnly affirms, " If any man shall add unto these things, God shall 
add unto him the plagues that are written in this book ; and if any 
man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God 
shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy 

2 



10 INTRODUCTION. 

city, and from the things which are written in this book " (Rev. xx. 
18, 19). These, and similar passages out of this book, calmly and 
deliberately place us in a dilemma from which there is no escape. 
Either the Scriptures are the word of God, or they are not. If they 
be not, then the writers of these Scriptures, who directly and indirectly 
affirm their divine origin, are false witnesses ; and if they have proved 
unworthy of credit on this fundamental point, they can be of no author- 
ity on other equally important matters. But neither before examina- 
tion, nor after an examination of eighteen centuries, have we the 
slightest reason for doubting the veracity of these men ; and their 
unanimous evidence is in favor of the divine authorship of the Bible. 

(d) All that we have learned of the contents of these books accords 
with their claim to be the word of God. The constant harmony of 
their statements, when fairly interpreted, with one another, with gene- 
ral history, and with physical and metaphysical truth, affords an in- 
contestable proof of their divine origin. The statements of other early 
writers have invariably come into conflict with historical or scientific 
truth. But, still further, these books communicate to us matters con- 
cerning God, the origin and the future destiny of man, which are of 
vital importance in themselves, and yet are absolutely beyond the 
reach of human intuition, observation, or deduction. It is impossible, 
therefore, for mere human beings, apart from divine instruction and 
authority, to attest these things to us at all. Hence these books, if 
they were not traceable ultimately to a Divine Author, would abso- 
lutely fail us in the very points that are essential to be known ; namely, 
the origin of our being, the relation in which we stand to God, and the 
way to eternal happiness, on which neither science nor history affords 
us any light. But they yield a clear, definite, and consistent light and 
help, meeting the very askings and longings of our souls on these mo- 
mentous topics. The wonderful way in which they convince the rea- 
son, probe the conscience, and apply a healing balm to the wounded 
spirit, is in itself an independent attestation to their divine origin. 

(e) The peculiar structure of this volume of writings, the general ac- 
knowledgment of the Jewish and Christian church in all ages, the 
account which it naturally furnishes of its own origin and the nature 
of its contents, are the sure and only grounds of evidence in regard to 
authorship ; and these concur in ascribing it to an ultimate divine 



THE BIBLE. 11 

source. And we have only to add that there has not yet been, and 
we do not expect there will be, any tenable objection to this vast and 
growing array of evidence. 

The nature of inspiration can only be learned from Scripture itself. 
To it, therefore, we apply for a definition of this important term. 
The Apostle Paul in writing to Timothy, a pastor and teacher in the 
church of God, makes use of the following expressions concerning 
Scripture : Ta lepa ypa/x/x,ara ra Swu/x,eva ere cro^tcrat ets croiTrjptaVy and 
Iltum ypcuprj $eo7rv€i;crTOS /cat <ocf>e\i{jt,os 7rpos Si8ao7<aA.iav. " The holy 
scripta able to make thee wise unto salvation," and " Every scripture 
given by inspiration of God, and profitable for doctrine." From these 
expressions we gather the following order of doctrine concerning the 
origin and character of the Bible. 1. It is given by inspiration of 
God. 2. It is first holy ; second, able to make wise unto salvation ; 
and, third, profitable for doctrine and other purposes of edification. In 
these elements of the doctrine of inspiration, the following points are 
worthy of remark: 1. It is a writing, not a writer, of which the 
character is here given. The thing said to be inspired is not that 
which goes into the mind of the author, but that which comes out of 
his mind by means of his pen. It is not the material on which he is 
to exercise his mind, but the result of that mental exercise which is 
here characterized. Hence it has received all the impress, not merely 
of man in general, but even of the individual author in particular, at 
the time when it is so designated. It is that piece of composition 
which the human author has put into a written form which is described 
as inspired. This is the true warrant for, and the proper meaning of, 
the phrase verbal inspiration. 2. To be inspired of God, is to be 
communicated from God, who is a spirit, to the mind of man. The 
modus operandi, mode of communication, we do not pretend to explain. 
But the possibility of such communication we cannot for a moment 
doubt. The immediate author of a merely human book may not be 
the ultimate author of a single sentiment it contains. He may have 
received every fact from trustworthy witnesses, who are after all the 
real vouchers for all that it records. And the very merit of the im- 
mediate author may consist in judiciously selecting the facts, faithfully 
adhering to his authorities, and properly arranging his materials for 
the desired effect. Analogous to this is the divine authorship of the 



12 INTRODUCTION. 

sacred volume. By the inspiration of the Almighty, the human author 
is made to perceive certain things divine and human, to select such 
as are to be revealed, and to record these with fidelity in the natural 
order and to the proper end. The result is a writing given by in- 
spiration of God, with all the peculiarities of man, and all the authority 
of God. 3. Such a written revelation is " holy." The primary holi- 
' ness of a writing is its truth. God's part in it secures its veracity and 
j credibility. Even man often tells the truth, where he is a disinterested 
\ witness ; and we believe not only his sincerity, but his competence. 
God, who cannot lie, is able to secure his scribes from error intentional 
or unintentional. The secondary holiness of a writing appears in the 
two following particulars : 4. It is also " able to make wise unto sal- 
vation." This refers to the kind of truth contained in the book of 
God. It is a revelation of mercy, of peace on earth and good-will to 
man. This, at the same time, imparts an unspeakable interest to the 
book, and points out the occasion warranting the divine interference 
for its composition. 5. It is also " profitable for doctrine." It tends 
to holiness. It is moral as well as merciful in its revelations. It con- 
tains truth, mercy, and righteousness. It reflects, therefore, the holi- 
ness of God. It is in all respects worthy of its high original. 



VI. — ITS INTERPRETATION. 

It is impossible to forget that we live in the world of the fall. Hence 
it must needs be that offences come, stumblings at certain facts or doc- 
trines of the word of God. If it were not for this, the business of in- 
terpretation would be comparatively easy. The Bible shines by its 
own light, and only needs preservation, translation, and illustration by 
human and natural history. But as things now are, the art of inter- 
pretation presupposes difficulties, even to the comparatively earnest 
and sincere, in the way of understanding and accepting its revelations. 
And the interpreter must not unfrequently allude to the misconceptions 
which he endeavors to remove. The reader must not be surprised, 
therefore, if, in a world of darkness, objections have occurred to other 
minds which have never struck his own. The aim of an exposition of 



THE BIBLE. 13 

the "Word of God is expressly to obviate difficulties, and elucidate as far 
as possible the ways of God with man. In the course of exposition, 
therefore, passages that present obstacles to the mind, or relate to the 
things of God, must be treated at length, while those that are plain in 
themselves, or collateral to the grand topic, may almost be left to speak 
for themselves. 

It follows, from this consideration, that the laws of interpretation, to 
be of any avail for the conviction of men, must be above question. It 
is necessary, therefore, to start with some fundamental fact, broad 
enough to be the basis of a system of exegetical maxims. The Bible, 
then, is the word of God concerning the ways of God with man, put 
into a written form by men during a period of sixteen hundred years ; 
the Old Testament in the Hebrew language, the New Testament in the 
Greek. This pregnant fact is the sum of what we have already stated 
concerning the Scriptures, and it will be convenient to resolve it into 
its elementary parts, in order to display the several grounds for the 
general laws of interpretation. 

1. The Bible is written by men. This is admitted on alt hands. 
Hence it is subject to the ordinary rules of interpretation which apply 
to all human writings ; not to rules arbitrary in their nature, modern 
in their invention, or unexampled in the days of the writer. Still fur- 
ther, the Bible is written for men, and accordingly, in the language of 
common life, not in the special terminology of science or art. Hence 
the following rules are obvious : 

Eule I. The usage of common life determines the meaning of a 
word or phrase ; not that of philosophy. 

Rule II. The usage of the time and place of the writer determines 
the meaning ; not that of any other time ; not modern usage. 

Rule III. If a word or phrase had several meanings, the context 
determines which it bears in a given passage. The more common 
meaning of the writer's day is to be preferred, provided it suit the pas- 
sage ; not that more common in our day. 

Rule IV. If the author have occasion to employ a new word, or an 
old word in a new signification, his definition or his usage must deter- 
mine the meaning ; not any other author's usage. 

Rule V. The direct or literal sense of a sentence is the meaning 



14 INTRODUCTION. 

of the author, when no other is indicated ; not any figurative, allegori- 
cal, or mystical meaning. 

Rule VI. Passages bearing a direct, literal, or fully ascertained 
sense go to determine what passages have another sense than the lit- 
eral, and what that other sense is ; not our opinions. 

2. The Bible treats of God in relation with man. It is obvious 
that this circumstance will afford occasion for new words and phrases, 
and new applications of the old ones. It brings into view such pecu- 
liar figures of speech as are called anthropomorphism and anthropop- 
athism. It gives a new expansion to all the previous rules. It is 
needful to specify only one additional rule here, — 

Rule VII. A word, phrase, or sentence belonging primarily to the 
things of man, must be understood, when applied to the things of God, 
in a sense consistent with his essential nature ; not in a sense contra- 
dictory of any known attribute of that nature. 

3. There is a growth in the Bible in two respects. 1. There is a 
growth in the adding of document to document for at least sixteen hun- 
dred years. Hence the simple or primary meaning of any part of 
speech will appear in the earlier documents ; the more expanded and 
recondite may come out only in the later. 2. There is a growth also 
in adding fact to fact, and truth to truth, whereby doctrines that at first 
come out only in the bud are in the end expanded into full blow. At 
its commencement the Bible chooses and points out the all-sufficient 
root from which all doctrine may germinate. That root is God. In 
him inhere all the virtues that can create and uphold a world, and 
therefore in the knowledge of him are involved all the doctrines that 
can instruct and edify the intelligent creature, Hence the elementary 
form of a doctrine will be found in the older parts of Scripture ; the 
more developed form in the later books. This gives rise to two simi- 
lar rules of interpretation, — 

Rule VIII. The meaning of a word or phrase in a later book of 
Scripture is not to be transferred to an earlier book, unless required 
by the context. 

Rule IX. The form of a doctrine in a subsequent part of the Bi- 
ble must not be taken to be as fully developed in a preceding part 
without the warrant of usage and the context. 

4. The Old Testament was composed in Hebrew, the New in 



THE BIBLE. 15 

Greek. Each must be interpreted according to the genius of the lan- 
guage in which it was originally written. The interpreter must there- 
fore be familiar with the grammar of each, in which the particulars 
which constitute its genius are gathered into a system. The writers 
of the New Testament were, moreover, Hebrews by birth and habit, 
with the possible exception of Luke. Their Greek therefore bears a 
Hebrew stamp ; and their words and phrases are employed to express 
Hebrew things, qualities, customs, and doctrines. Hence they must 
receive much of their elucidation from the Hebrew parts of speech of 
which they are the intended equivalents. Two rules of interpretation 
come under this head, — 

Rule X. The sense of a sentence, and the relation of one sentence 
to another, must be determined according to the grammar of the lan- 
guage in which it is written. 

Rule XL The meaning of New Testament words and phrases 
must be determined in harmony with Old Testament usage ; not by 
Greek against Hebrew usage. 

5. The Bible is the word of God. All the other elements of our 
fundamental postulate are plain on the surface of things, and therefore 
unanimously admitted. This, however, some interpreters of the Bible 
do not accept, at least without reserve. But notwithstanding their re- 
jection of this dogma, such interpreters are bound to respect the claims 
of this book to be the Word of God. This they can only do by apply- 
ing to its interpretation such rules as are fairly deducible from such a 
characteristic. In doing so they put themselves to no disadvantage. 
They only give the claimant a fair stage, and put its high claim to a 
reasonable test. Now God is a God of truth. His word is truth. 
Hence all Scripture must be consistent with truth and with itself. It 
contains no real contradiction. This gives rise to the following rules : 

Rule XII. All Scripture is true historically and metaphysically ; 
not mythical or fallible. 

Rule XIII. In verbally discordant passages that sense is to be 
adopted which will explain or obviate the discrepancy ; not a sense 
that makes a contradiction. To explain is positively to show the har- 
mony of the passage ; to obviate is negatively to show that there is no 
contradiction. 

Rule XIV. Scripture explains Scripture. Hence the clear and 



16 INTRODUCTION. 

plain passages elucidate the dark and abstruse ; not anything foreign 
to Scripture in time, place, or sentiment ; not our philosophy. 

Eule XV. Of rules that cross one another, the higher sets aside 
or modifies the lower. 



VII. — THE PENTATEUCH. 

I. Its Author. — The Pentateuch is a work presenting at first 
sight all the ordinary marks of unity. Its five parts stand in a natural 
relation to one another. Genesis contains the origin of the present 
constitution of nature, of man, of the Sabbath, of many of the pri- 
mary arts and customs of human society, of the covenant of works, of 
sin, of the covenant of grace, of the promise, and of the chosen 
people. Exodus records the growth of the chosen family into a 
nation, the departure of Israel from Egypt, the giving of the law, 
the directions for the construction of the tabernacle and its ap- 
purtenances, and the carrying of these directions into effect. Le- 
viticus treats of the ritual under the heads of the various offerings, 
the consecration of the priests, the removal of uncleanness, the 
means of purification, and the regulations concerning festivals and 
vows. Numbers recounts the first census of the people, the sojourn- 
ing in the wilderness, the conquest of the country east of the Jordan, 
the second census, and certain other arrangements preparatory to the 
crossing of the Jordan. Deuteronomy contains a recapitulation of the 
great deliverance the people had experienced, an admonitory address 
to them by Moses on the eve of his departure, with certain additional 
pieces designed for their instruction and encouragement. The book is 
then closed with a chapter giving an account of the death of Moses, 
which is due to the continuator of the sacred history. A literary work 
exhibiting such marks of connection and order it is natural to ascribe 
to one author. Moses was a man of learning (Acts vii. 22), a writer 
(Exod. xvii. 14, xxiv. 4), a poet (Exod. xv. ; Deut. xxxii.), a law- 
giver, and a public leader. He was also a witness and a chief mover 
in all the events recounted from the second chapter of Exodus to the 
last of Deuteronomy. It is therefore antecedently most probable that 
he was the author of the Pentateuch. 



THE BIBLE. 17 

Close and critical examiners, however, of this work have found cer- 
tain passages, sentences, and words which seem to come from a later 
hand. Various modes of explaining this appearance have been adopted, 
according to the circumstances of the interpreter. Either the divinely- 
authorized reviser, transcriber, and continuator of the sacred volume, 
made, by the divine direction, the needful additions in writing to the 
written work of Moses, or the author must have been as late as the 
supposed latest event or allusion recorded in the book. Either of these 
sujopositions is possible. But the antecedent probability is in favor of 
the former. Apart from the few passages which have the appearance 
of a later date, the work remains still a perfect whole from the begin- 
ning to the death of Moses, when it closes. It is also expressly affirmed 
in the book itself that Moses wrote certain parts of it, if not the whole 
(Exod. xvii. 14, xxiv. 4; Num. xxxiii. 2 ; Deut. xxxi. 9, 22, 24-26). 
Hence the probability is, that the whole work, being complete in itself, 
is the production of him to whom great part of it is by itself ascribed. 
As the whole book is also the first part of a progressive work, to be 
continued for many ages, it is natural that certain explanatory notes 
may have been inserted by the direction of the Divine Author. As 
Moses may have elucidated the documents that came down to him by 
a few verbal changes and additions, so may his continuator have added 
a few notes of explanation to his finished work for the benefit of a 
later generation. But the date of a work is that of the first edition, so 
to speak ; not that of its final retouching. Though an author may have 
lived to publish ten editions of his work, with slight modifications in 
each, yet the date of it is at least as far back as that of the first edi- 
tion. So, though the Almighty may have employed a subsequent 
prophet to add the last chapter of Deuteronomy, and insert a few ex- 
planatory clauses or parentheses, yet the book of the law is still to be 
dated from its first complete draft by the original author. 

Some critics also find discrepancies of statement and style in the Pen- 
tateuch, and have endeavored to explain these phenomena by distribut- 
ing the work among several authors, each of whom contributed his 
own part to the whole performance. If this were carried merely to 
the extent of presuming that certain historical pieces of composition 
came down to Moses, which he retouched and fitted into the first part 
of his own work, and that this again was retouched by a subsequent 
3 



18 INTRODUCTION. 

sacred writer, it could do no harm, and might be attended with some 
advantage to the interpretation of the book. But the hypothesis that 
a work with obvious marks of substantial unity was fabricated out of 
several works of different authors and ages is improbable in itself. It 
rests mainly on an over-refinement of critical acumen, and has proved 
a failure in other instances of its application. And it is unavailing as 
a means of explaining discrepancies of statement, since it merely suc- 
cumbs to these difficulties, leaves them where it found them, thinks only 
of adding to their number and force, and simply ascribes their occur- 
rence to the inadvertence of the compiler. This is a mode of dealing 
with a work of antiquity to which we are not warranted in resorting, 
until it has been proved contradictory to itself, to the acknowledged 
facts of observation, or the intuitive principles of reason. A fair ex- 
amination of this work will show the very reverse of this to be the 
fact. It is the only key to the history of the human race, the chief 
voucher for many of its important facts ; and it presents an astonishing 
harmony with its own statements, and with the main deductions of rea- 
son and observation concerning the origin and nature of man. The 
supposed discrepancies are due either to our misconception of its mean- 
ing, or to our ignorance of the circumstances in which it was written. 
Such discrepancies can never affect either the unity or the authenticity 
of the work. They leave in all its force the antecedent probability of 
its composition by Moses. 

This probability is turned into an established certainty, by testimony 
of the most satisfactory kind, as soon as we go beyond the work itself 
into the succeeding portions of Sacred Scripture. In the very first 
chapter of the book of Joshua we read of the book of the law, which 
is plainly ascribed to Moses (i. 7, 8). Other references to the book 
of the law by Moses are found in subsequent passages of Joshua (viii. 
31-34, xxiii. 6, xxiv. 26). Similar testimonies are extant in the 
following books : 1 Kings ii. 3 ; 2 Kings xiv. 6, xxiii. 25 ; 2 Chron. 
xxv. 4, xxxiv. 14, xxxv. 12 ; Ezra vi. 18 ; Neh. viii. 1, xiii. 1. 
We close this evidence by an incidental statement of our Lord after 
his resurrection, — " These are the words which I spake unto you 
while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were 
written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms 
concerning me" (Luke xxiv. 44). It is only needful to say that 



THE BIBLE. 19 

the law of Moses here means the Pentateuch, and that this passage is 
only a single sample out of the concurrent testimony of the New Tes- 
tament to the Mosaic authorship of this book. 

II. Its written form. — The Pentateuch contains six hundred 
and sixty-nine nW^B or paragraphs, distinguished into ninWB open 
and ni^r.i? closed. Those in which a new line was commenced were 
called open ; those in which the same line after an interval was con- 
tinued were said to be closed. The former were marked with a 3 
standing in the space between the paragraphs ; the latter with a D. 
These may be represented by ^[ and §. The former were intended to 
mark greater distinctions in the matter ; the latter, less. The same 
paragraph divisions are also found in the prophets and Hagiographa. 
They were in existence anterior to the Talmud, as they are noticed in 
the Mishna ; while in the Gemara they are declared to be inviolable 
rules of sacred orthography, and ascribed to Moses. According to 
Keil, they may have proceeded from the authors of the sacred books. 

Besides these paragraphs, the division ^ into d^&B, verses, was 
found in the poetical books from an early period. These verses are 
by the accents subdivided into KwAa and /co/x/xara. In the oldest MSS. 
these verses were written separately, though this arrangement has 
been laid aside in the Masoretic MSS. A similar division of the sen- 
tences in the other books is mentioned in the Mishna, and this was at 
all events the foundation of our present verse system. This was first 
introduced into editions of the Hebrew Bible by Athias, a learned Jew 
of Amsterdam, in 1661, A.c. It was adopted in the Vulgate so early 
as 1558. 

The present division into chapters originated with the Christians in 
the thirteenth century, being ascribed by some to Cardinal Hugo, by 
others to Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury. It was first 
used in a concordance to the Vulgate, and adopted in the fifteenth cen- 
tury by R. Nathan for a concordance of the Hebrew Bible. 

The Pentateuch was also divided into fifty-four larger parashoth or 
lessons, for reading in the worship of the synagogue. By this distri- 
bution the whole Pentateuch was read over at a section every Sabbath 
in the Jewish intercalary year, which contained fifty-four weeks. In 
the ordinary year, which contained not more than fifty-one weeks, two 



20 INTRODUCTION. 

of ivhe shorter sections were read together on several Sabbaths so as to 
complete the reading. In the spaces where the lesson for the Sabbath 
anil the paragraph end together, instead of one 5 or &, as the case 
may be, we find three inserted. 

Corresponding to these sections of the law were the rrinfiSfi di- 
visions or lessons of the prophets, which are mentioned in the Mishna. 
Elias Levita says that these were introduced by the Jews, when An- 
tiochus Epiphanes forbade the reading of the law. This, however, is 
a mere conjecture ; and it is more probable that these sections were 
add ed to the service of the synagogue in order to render it more com- 
plete. A table of the haphtaroth as well as the parashoth is given in 
Van der Hooght's Bible at the end of the Ilagiographa. 

The Masoretic text is the basis of the following translation and 
commentary. Important deviations from it are noted. 



VIII. — GENESIS. 

V 

The book of Genesis is separable into eleven documents or pieces 
of composition, most of which contain other subordinate divisions. The 
first <>f these has no introductory phrase ; the third begins with nsb J"T 
rviMtt ' this is the book of the generations ; ' and the others with 
ftTibin <-&:* c these are the generations.' 

The subordinate pieces, however, of which these primary documents 
consist, are as distinct from each other, as complete in themselves, and 
as clearly owing each to a separate effort of the composer, as the 
wholes which they go to constitute. The history of the fall, Gen. iii., 
the family of Adam, iv., the description of the vices of the antedilu- 
vians, vi. 1-8, and the confusion of tongues, xi. 1-9, are as dis- 
tinct efforts of composition, and as perfect in themselves, as any of the 
primary divisions. The same holds good throughout the entire book. 
Even these subordinate pieces contain still smaller passages, having an 
exact and self-contained finish, which enables the critic to lift them out 
and examine them, and makes him wonder if they have not been in- 
serted in the document as in a mould previously fitted for their recep- 
tion. The memoranda of each day's creative work, of the locality of 
Paradise, of each link in the genealogy of Noah and of Abraham, are 



THE BIBLE. 21 

striking examples of this. They sit, each in the narrative, like a stone 
in its setting. 

Whether these primary documents were originally composed by 
Moses, or came into his hands from earlier sacred writers, and were 
by him revised and combined into his great work, we are not informed. 
By revising a sacred writing, we mean replacing obsolete or otherwise 
unknown words or modes of writing by such as were in common use 
in the time of the reviser, and putting in an explanatory clause or 
passage when necessary for the men of a later day. The latter of the 
above suppositions is not inconsistent with Moses being reckoned the 
responsible author of the whole collection. We hold it to be more 
natural, satisfactory, and accordant with the phenomena of Scripture. 
It is satisfactory to have the recorder, if not an eye-witness, yet as 
near as possible to the events recorded. And it seems to have been a 
part of the method of the Divine Author of the Scripture to have a 
constant collector, conservator, authenticator, reviser, and continuator 
of that book which he designed for the spiritual instruction of succes- 
sive ages. We may disapprove of one writer tampering with the 
work of another ; but we must allow the Divine Author to adapt his 
own work, from time to time, to the necessities of coming generations. 
This implies, however, that writing was in use from the origin of 
man. 

We are not able to say when writing of any kind was invented, or 
when syllabic or alphabetic writing came into use. But we meet with 
the word *iBt> sepher, a writing, from which we have our English 
cipher, so early as the fifth chapter of Genesis. And many things 
encourage us to presume a very early invention of writing. It is, after 
all, only another form of speech, another effort of the signing faculty 
in man. Why may not the hand gesticulate to the eye, as well as the 
tongue articulate to the ear ? We believe the former was concurrent 
with the latter in early speech, as it is in the speech of all lively na- 
tions to the present day. We have only another step to writing. Let 
the gestures of the hand take a permanent form by being carved in 
lines on a smooth surface, and we have a written character. 

This leads us to the previous question of human speech. Was it a 
gradual acquisition after a period of brute silence ? Apart from his- 
tory, we argue it was not. We conceive that speech leaped at once 



22 INTRODUCTION. 

from the brain of man a perfect thing, — perfect as the new-born in- 
fant, — yet capable of growth and development. This has been the 
case with all inventions and discoveries. The pressing necessity has 
come upon the fitting man, and he has given forth a complete idea, 
which after ages can only develope. The Bible record confirms this 
theory. Adam comes to be, and then by the force of his native genius 
speaks. And in primitive times we have no doubt the hand moved as 
well as the tongue. Hence we hear so soon of " the book." t 

2. On the supposition that writing was known to Adam, Gen. i.-iv., 
containing the first two of these documents, formed the Bible of -Adam's 
descendants, or the antediluvians. Gen. i.-xi. 9, being the sum of 
these two and the following three, constitutes the Bible of the descend- 
ants of Noah. The whole of Genesis may be called the Bible of the 
posterity of Jacob ; and, we may add, that the five books of the law, 
of which the last four at least are immediately due to Moses, were the 
first Bible of Israel as a nation. 

3. Genesis is purely a historical work. It serves as the narrative 
preamble to the legislation of Moses. It possesses, however, a much 
higher and broader interest than this. It is the first volume of the 
history of man in relation with God. It consists of a main line of 
narrative, and one or more collateral lines. The main line is continu- 
ous, and relates to the portion of the human race that remains in com- 
munication with God. Side by side with this is a broken line, or 
rather several successive lines, which are linked on, not to one an- 
other, but to the main line. Of these, two come out in the primary 
documents of Genesis ; namely, Gen. xxv. 12-18, and Gen. xxxvi., 
containing the respective records of Ishmael and Esau. When these 
are placed side by side with those of Isaac and Jacob, the stages in 
the main line of narrative are found to be nine, or two less than the 
primitive documents. 

These great lines of narrative, in like manner, include minor lines, 
whenever the history falls into several threads, which must all be taken 
up one after another, in order to carry on the whole concatenation of 
events. These come out in paragraphs, and even shorter passages, 
which necessarily overlap one another in point of time. The striking 
peculiarity of Hebrew composition is aptly illustrated by the successive 
links in the genealogy of the fifth chapter, where the life of one patri- 



THE BIBLE. 



23 



arch is brought to a close before that of the next is taken up, though 
they actually run parallel for the greater part of the predecessor's life. 
It furnishes a key to much that is difficult in the narrative. 

4. This book is naturally divided into two great parts, — the first nar- 
rating the creation ; the second, the development of the things created 
from the beginning to the deaths of Jacob and Joseph. 

The first part is equal in value to the whole record of what may 
take place to the end of time, and therefore to the whole of the Bible, 
not only in its historical, but in its prophetical aspect. A created sys- 
tem of things contains in its bosom the whole of that which may be 
unfolded from it. 

The second great part of Genesis consists of two main divisions, — 
the one detailing the course of events before the deluge, the other after 
it. These divisions may be distributed into sections in the following 
way : The stages of the narrative marked off in the primary docu- 
ments are nine ; in conse'quence, however, of the transcendent impor- 
tance of the primeval events, we have broken up the second document 
into three sections, and the fourth into two, and have thus divided the 
contents of the book into twelve great sections. All these matters of 
arrangement are set forth to view in the following 

TABLE OE CONTENTS. 



I. Creation. 





re. 




.0 j 




c; 


H 


<D 


fc 


PQ 


H 




II. o - 


53 


w 


ft 


> 


a> - 


w 


A 


ft 






u 




<u 




£ 




I < 



SECTIONS. 

I. Creation, 
II. The Man, 

III. The Fall, 

IV. The Race, 

V. Line to Noah, 
VI. the Delude, 
VII. The Covenant, 
VIII. The Nations, 
IX. Line to Abram, 
X. Abraham, 

XL Isaac, 
XII. Jacob, 



CHAPTERS. 






DOCUMENTS. 




i.-ii. 3. 






I. 1 






ii. 4-25. 




) 




4' 




iii. 




} 


II. 


10 






( 




& 


eu 


iv. 




1 








v.-vi. 8. 




/ 


III. " 


5T 


■ W 


vi. 9-viii. 
ix. 




1 


IV. 






x.-xi. 0. 






V. 


. 




xi. J 0-26. 






VI. 






xi. 27-xxv. 


11, 




VII. 






xxv. 12-18. 






VIII. 






xxxv. 19-xxv. 




IX. 






xxxvi. 






X. 






xxxvii.-l. 






XL 







CO 



COMMENTARY. 



PAET I. 

SECTION I. — THE CREATION. 

I. THE ABSOLUTE CREATION. — Gen. i. 1. 

rPttS&H head-part, beginning, of a thing, in point of time (Gen. x. 
10), or value (I*rov. i. 7). Its opposite is r^fis* (Isa. xlvi. 10). 
tfttJN^Si in the beginning, is always used in reference to time. Here 
only is it taken absolutely. 

ana create, give being to something new. It has God always for its 
subject. Its object may be anything: matter (Gen. i. 1) ; animal life 
(Gen. i. 21) ; spiritual life (Gen. i. 27). Hence creation is not con- 
fined to a single point of time. Whenever anything absolutely new — 
that is, not involved in anything previously extant — is called into exist- 
ence, there is creation (Num. xvi. 30). Any thing or event also may 
be said to be created by Him, who created the whole system of nature 
to which it belongs (Mai. ii. 10). The verb in its simple form occurs 
forty-eight times (of which eleven are in Genesis, fourteen in the 
whole Pentateuch, and twenty-one in Isaiah), and always in one sense. 

fia^JI^H. God. The noun i-nbx or tfbtf is found in the Hebrew scrip- 
tures fifty-seven times in the singular (of which two are in Deuteron- 
omy, and forty-one in the book of Job), and about three thousand times 
in the plural, of which seventeen are in Job. The Chaldee form sbx 
occurs about seventy-four times in the singular, and ten in the plural. 
The letter rt is proved to be radical, not only by bearing mappiq, but 
also by keeping its ground before a formative ending. The Arabic 
verb, with the same radicals, seems rather to borrow from it than to 
lend the meaning coluit, worshipped, which it sometimes has. The root 
probably means to be lasting, binding, firm, strong. Hence the noun 
means the Everlasting, and in the plural, the Eternal Powers. It is 
correctly rendered God, the name of the Eternal and Supreme Being 



26 THE ABSOLUTE CREATION. 

in our language, which perhaps originally meant lord or ruler. And, 
like this, it is a common or appellative noun. This is evinced by its 
direct use and indirect applications. 

Its direct use is either proper or improper, according to the object 
to which it is applied. Every instance of its proper use manifestly de- 
termines its meaning to be the Eternal, the Almighty, who is himself 
without beginning, and has within himself the power of causing other 
things, personal and impersonal, to be, and on this event is the sole 
object of reverence and primary obedience to his intelligent creation. 

Its improper use arose from the lapse of man into false notions of 
the object of worship. Many real or imaginary beings came to be 
regarded as possessed of the attributes, and therefore entitled to the 
reverence belonging to Deity, and were in consequence called gods by 
their mistaken votaries, and by others who had occasion to speak of 
them. This usage at once proves it to be a common noun, and corro- 
borates its proper meaning. When thus employed, however, it imme- 
diately loses most of its inherent grandeur, and sometimes dwindles 
down to the bare notion of the supernatural or the extramundane. In 
this manner it seems to be applied by the witch of Endor to the unex- 
pected apparition that presented itself to her (1 Sam. xxviii. 13). 

Its indirect applications point with equal steadiness to this primary 
and fundamental meaning. Thus it is employed in a relative and 
well-defined sense to denote one appointed of God to stand in a cer- 
tain divine relation to another. This relation is that of authoritative 
revealer or administrator of the will of God. Thus we are told (John 
x. 34) that "he called them gods, to whom the word of God came." 
Thus Moses became related to Aaron as God to his prophet (Exod. 
iv. 16), and to Pharaoh as God to his creature (Exod. vii. 1). Ac- 
cordingly, in Ps. lxxxii. 6, we find this principle generalized : " /had 
said, gods are ye, and sons of the Highest all of you." Here the 
divine authority vested in Moses is expressly recognized in those who 
sit in Moses' seat as judges for God. They exercised a function of 
God among the people, and so were in God's stead to them. Man, 
indeed, was originally adapted for ruling, being made in the image of 
God, and commanded to have dominion over the inferior creatures. 
The parent also is instead of God in some respect to his children, and 
the sovereign holds the relation of patriarch to his subjects. Still, 
however, we are not fully warranted in translating d^S judges in 
Exod. xxi. 6, xxii. 7, 8, 27 (8, 9, 28), because a more easy, exact, 
and impressive sense is obtained from the proper rendering. 



GEN. 1,1, 27 

The word ?j&6e angel, as a relative or official term, is sometimes 
applied to a person of the Godhead ; but the process is not reversed. 
The Seventy indeed translate CPfi'Ptf in several instances by ayyekoi (Ps- 
viii. 6; xcvii. 7 ; cxxxviii. 1). The correctness of this is seemingly 
supported by the quotations in Heb. i. 6. and ii. 7. These, however, 
do not imply that the renderings are absolutely correct, but only suffi- 
ciently so for the purpose of the writer. And it is evident they are so, 
because the original is a highly imaginative figure, by which a class is 
conceived to exist, of which in reality only one of the kind is or can 
be. Now the Seventy, either imagining, from the occasional applica- 
tion of the official term ' angel ' to God, that the angelic office somehow 
or sometimes involved the divine nature, or viewing some of the false 
gods of the heathen as really angels, and therefore seemingly wishing 
to give a literal turn to the figure, substituted the word ayyeXoi as an 
interpretation for &*|rf>K. This free translation was sufficient for the 
purpose of the inspired author of the epistle to the Hebrews, inasmuch 
as the worship of all angels (Heb. i. 6) in the Septuagint sense of the 
term was that of the highest rank of dignitaries under God ; and the 
argument in the latter passage (Heb. ii. 7) turns not on the words, 
{l thou madest him a little lower than the angels," but upon the sen- 
tence, " thou hast put all things under his feet." Moreover, the Sev- 
enty are by no means consistent in this rendering of the word in similar 
passages (see Ps. lxxxii. 1, xcvii. 1 ; 1 Sam. xxviii. 13). 

With regard to the use of the word, it is to be observed that the 
plural of the Chaldee form is uniformly plural in sense. The English 
version of "pin^-na the Son of God (Dan. iii. 25) is the only excep- 
tion to this. But as it is the phrase of a heathen, the real meaning 
may be, a son of the gods. On the contrary, the plural of the Hebrew 
form is generally employed to denote the one God. The singular 
form, when applied to the true God, is naturally suggested by the 
prominent thought of his being the only one. The plural, when so 
applied, is generally accompanied with singular conjuncts, and conveys 
the predominant conception of a . plurality in the one God, — a plu- 
rality which must be perfectly consistent with his being the only pos- 
sible one of his kind. The explanations of this use of the plural — 
namely, that it is a relic of polytheism, that it indicates the association 
of the angels with the one God in a common or collective appellation, 
and that it expresses the multiplicity of attributes subsisting in him — 
are not satisfactory. All we can say is, that it indicates such a plu- 
rality in the only one God as makes his nature complete and creation 



28 THE ABSOLUTE CREATION. 

possible. Such a plurality in unity must have dawned upon the mind 
of Adam. It is afterwards, we conceive, definitely revealed in the 
doctrine of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. 

fi^ad skies, heavens, being the high (i»tt3 be high, Arab.) or the 
airy region ; the overarching dome of space, with all its revolving 
orbs. 

■pa land, earth, the low or the hard. The underlying surface of 
land. 

The verb is in the perfect form, denoting a completed act. The 
adverbial note of time, " in the beginning," determines it to belong to 
the past. To suit our idiom it may, therefore, be strictly rendered 
" had created." The skies and the land are the universe divided into 
its two natural parts by an earthly spectator. The absolute beginning 
of time, and the creation of all things, mutually determine each other. 

I. 1. In the beginning had God created the heavens and 
the earth. 

This great introductory sentence of the book of God is equal in 
weight to the whole of its subsequent communications concerning the 
kingdom of nature. 

It assumes the existence of God ; for it is he who in the beginning 
creates. It assumes his eternity ; for he is before all things : and as 
nothing comes from nothing, he himself must have always been. It 
implies his omnipotence; for he creates the universe of things. It 
implies his absolute freedom ; for he begins a new course of action. 
It implies his infinite wisdom ; for a kosmos, an order of matter and 
mind, can only come from a being of absolute intelligence. It implies 
his essential goodness ; for the Sole, Eternal, Almighty, All-wise, and 
All-sufficient Being has no reason, no motive, and no capacity for evil. 
It presumes him to be beyond all limit of time and place ; as he is 
before all time and place. 

It asserts the creation of the heavens and the earth ; that is, of the 
universe of mind and matter. This creating is the omnipotent act of 
giving existence to things which before had no existence. This is the 
first great mystery of things ; as the end is the second. Natural sci- 
ence observes things as they are, when they have already laid hold of 
existence. It ascends into the past as far as observation will reach, 
and penetrates into the future as far as experience will guide., But it 



GEN. LI. 29 

does not touch the beginning or the end. This first sentence of revela- 
tion, however, records the beginning. At the same time it involves 
the progressive development of that which is begun, and so contains 
within its bosom the whole of what is revealed in the book of God. It 
is thus historical of the beginning, and prophetical of the whole of time. 
It is, therefore, equivalent to all the rest of revelation taken together, 
which merely records the evolutions of one sphere of creation, and 
nearly and more nearly anticipates the end of present things. 

This sentence assumes the being of God, and asserts the beginning 
of things. Hence it intimates that the existence of God is more im- 
mediately patent to the reason of man than the creation of the universe. 
And this is agreeable to the philosophy of things ; for the existence 
of God is a necessary and eternal truth, more and more self-evident to 
the intellect as it rises to maturity. But the beginning of things is, by 
its very nature, a contingent event, which once was not and then came 
to be contingent on the free will of the Eternal, and, therefore, not 
evident to reason itself, but made known to the understanding by tes- 
timony and the reality of things. This sentence is the testimony, and 
the actual world in us and around us is the reality. Faith takes 
account of the one, observation of the other. 

It bears on the very face of it the indication that it was written by 
man, and for man ; for it divides all things into the heavens and the 
earth. Such a division evidently suits those only who are inhabitants 
of the earth. Accordingly, this sentence is the foundation-stone of the 
history, not of the universe at large, of the sun, of any other planet, 
but of the earth, and of man its rational inhabitant. The primeval 
event which it records may be far distant, in point of time, from the 
next event in such a history ; as the earth may have existed myriads 
of ages, and undergone many vicissitudes in its condition, before it 
became the home of the human race. And, for ought we know, the 
history of other planets, even of the solar system, may yet be unwritten, 
because there has been as yet no rational inhabitant to compose or 
peruse the record. We have no intimation of the interval of time that 
elapsed between the beginning of things narrated in this prefatory 
sentence and that state of things which is announced in the following 
verse. 

With no less clearness, however, does it show that it was dictated by 
superhuman knowledge. For it records the beginning of things of 
which natural science can take no cognizance. Man observes certain 
laws of nature, and, guided by these, may trace the current of physical 



30 THE ABSOLUTE CBEATION. 

events backwards and forwards, but without being able to fix any limit 
to the course of nature in either direction. And not only this sentence, 
but the main part of this and the following chapter communicates 
events that occurred before man made his appearance on the stage of 
things ; and therefore before he could either witness or record them. 
And in harmony with all this, the whole volume is proved by the topics 
chosen, the revelations made, the views entertained, the ends contem- 
plated, and the means of information possessed, to be derived from a 
higher source than man. 

This simple sentence denies atheism ; for it assumes the being of 
God. It denies polytheism, and, among its various forms, the doc- 
trine of two eternal principles, the one good and the other evil ; for it 
confesses the one Eternal Creator. It denies materialism ; for it asserts 
the creation of matter. It denies pantheism ; for it assumes the ex- 
istence of God before all things, and apart from them. It denies fatal- 
ism ; for it involves the freedom of the Eternal Being. 

It indicates the relative superiority, in point of magnitude, of the 
heavens to the earth, by giving the former the first place in the order 
of words. It is thus in accordance with the first elements of astronom- 
ical science. 

It is therefore pregnant with physical and metaphysical, with ethical 
and theological instruction for the first man, for the predecessors and 
contemporaries of Moses, and for all the succeeding generations of 
mankind. 

This verse forms an integral part of the narrative, and not a mere 
heading as some have imagined. This is abundantly evident from the 
following reasons: 1. It has the form of a narrative, not of a super- 
scription. 2. The conjunctive particle connects the second verse with 
it ; which could not be if it were a heading. 3. The very next sen- 
tence speaks of the earth as already in existence, and therefore its 
creation must be recorded in the first verse. 4. In the first verse the 
heavens take precedence of the earth ; but in the following verses all 
things, even the sun, moon, and stars seem to be but appendages to 
the earth. Thus, if it were a heading, it would not correspond with 
the narrative. 5. If the first verse belong to the narrative, order per- 
vades the whole recital ; whereas, if it be a heading, the most hope- 
less confusion enters. Light is called into being before the sun, moon, 
and stars. The earth takes precedence of the heavenly luminaries. 
The stars, which are co-ordinate with the sun, and pre-ordinate to the 
moon, occupy the third place in the narrative of their manifestation. 



GEN. I. 1. 31 

For any or all of these reasons it is obvious that the first verse forms 
a part of the narrative. 

As soon as it is settled that the narrative begins in the first verse, 
another question comes up for determination; namely, whether the 
heavens here mean the heavenly bodies that circle in their courses 
through the realms of space, or the mere space itself which they occupy 
with their perambulations. It is manifest that the heavens here denote 
the heavenly orbs themselves, — the celestial mansions with their exist- 
ing inhabitants, — for the following cogent reasons : 1. Creation implies 
something created, and not mere space, which is nothing, and cannot 
be said to be created. 2. As the earth here obviously means the sub- 
stance of the planet we inhabit, so, by parity of reason, the heavens 
must mean the substance of the celestial luminaries, the heavenly hosts 
of stars and spirits. 3. The heavens are placed before the earth, and 
therefore must mean that reality which is greater than the earth ; for 
if they meant space, and nothing real, they ought not to be before the 
earth. 4. The heavens are actually mentioned in the verse, and there- 
fore must mean a real thing ; for if they meant nothing at all, they ought 
not to be mentioned. 5. The heavens must denote the heavenly realities, 
because this imparts a rational order to the whole chapter ; whereas an 
unaccountable derangement appears if the sun, moon, and stars do not 
come into existence till the fourth day, though the sun is the centre of 
light and the measurer of the daily period. For any or all of these 
reasons, it is undeniable that the heavens in the first verse mean the 
fixed and planetary orbs of space ; and, consequently, that these un- 
counted tenants of the skies, along with our own planet, are all declared 
to be in existence before the commencement of the six days' creation. 

Hence it appears that the first verse records an event antecedent to 
those described in the subsequent verses. This is the absolute and 
aboriginal creation of the heavens and all that in them is, and of the 
earth in its primeval state. The former includes all those resplendent 
spheres which are spread before the wondering eye of man, as well as 
those hosts of planets and of spiritual and angelic beings which are 
beyond the range of his natural vision. This brings a simple and 
unforced meaning out of the whole chapter, and discloses a beauty and 
a harmony in the narrative which no other interpretation can afford. 
In this way the subsequent verses reveal a new effort of creative power, 
by which the pre-adamic earth, in the condition in which it appears in 
the second verse, is fitted up for the residence of a fresh animal crea- 
tion, including the human race. The process is represented as it 



32 THE LAND. 

would appear to primeval man in his infantile simplicity, with whom 
his own position would naturally be the fixed point to which every- 
thing else was to be referred. 



II. THE LAND. - Gen. i. 2. 
PPM be. It is to be noted, however, that the word has three mean- 

T T ' 7 

ings, two of which now scarcely belong to our English be. 1. Be, as 
an event, start into being, begin to be, come to pass. This may be 
understood of a thing beginning to be, "nix W be light ; or of an event 
taking place, tP»} y^n ijrt'J and it came to pass from the end of days. 
2. Be, as a change of state, become. This is applied to that which had 
a previous existence, but undergoes some change in its properties or 
relations ; as Tih'q a^Sii "iffSfl and she became a pillar of salt. 3. Be, as a 
state. This is the ultimate meaning to which the verb tends in all 
languages. In all its meanings, especially in the first and second, the 
Hebrew speaker presumes an onlooker, to whom the object in question 
appears coming into being, becoming or being, as the case maybe. 
Hence it means to be manifestly, so that eye-witnesses may observe the 
signs of existence. 

siiih} sfiTft a waste and a void. The two terms denote kindred ideas, 
and their combination marks emphasis. Besides the present passage 
tifiin occurs in only two others (Is. xxxiv. 11 ; Jer. iv. 23), and always 
in conjunction with Wlfa . If we may distinguish the two words, Via 
refers to the matter, and irtti to the form, and therefore the phrase 
combining the two denotes a state of utter confusion and desolation, an 
absence of all that can furnish or people the land. 

7|dn darkness, the absence of light. 

ti^'SQ face, surface. M55 face, look, turn towards. 

Sirtti roaring deep, billow. Win hum, roar, fret. 

Wi breath, wind, soul, spirit. 

vjn 1 ! be soft, tremble. Pi. brood, flutter. 

TW7] an d the earth. Here the conjunction attaches the noun, and 
not the verb, to the preceding statement. This is therefore a connec- 
tion of objects in space, and not of events in time. The present sen- 
tence, accordingly, may not stand closely conjoined in point of time 
with the preceding one. To intimate sequence in time the conjunction 
would have been prefixed to the verb in the form ihtij then was. 



GEN. I. 2. 33 

yy< means not only earth, but country, land, a portion of the earth's 
surface defined by natural, national, or civil boundaries ; as, the land of 
Egypt, thy land (Ex. xxiii. 9, 10). 

■ Before proceeding to translate this verse, it is to be observed that the 
state of an event may be described either definitely or indefinitely. It 
is described definitely by the three states of the Hebrew verb, — the per- 
fect, the current, and the imperfect. The latter two may be designated 
in common the imperfect state. A completed event is expressed by 
the former of the two states, or, as they are commonly called, tenses 
of the Hebrew verb ; a current event, by the imperfect participle ; 
an incipient event, by the second state or tense. An event is de- 
scribed indefinitely when there is neither verb nor participle in the 
sentence to determine its state. The first sentence of this verse is an 
example of the perfect state of an event, the second of the indefinite, 
and the third of the imperfect or continuous state. 



2. And the earth had become a waste and a void, and dark- 
ness was upon the face of the deep ; and the Spirit of God was 
brooding upon the face of the water. 

After the undefined lapse of time from the first grand act of creation, 
the present verse describes the state of things on the land immediately 
antecedent to the creation of a new system of vegetable and animal 
life, and, in particular, of man, the intelligent inhabitant, for whom this 
fair scene was now to be fitted up and replenished. 

Here " the earth " is put first in the order of words, and therefore, 
according to the genius of the Hebrew language, set forth prominently 
as the subject of the sentence ; whence we conclude that the subse- 
quent narrative refers to the land — the skies from this time forward 
coming in only incidentally, as they bear upon its history. The dis- 
order and desolation, we are to remember, are limited in their range 
to the land, and do not extend to the skies ; and the scene of the 
creation now remaining to be described is confined to the land, and its 
superincumbent matter in point of space, and to its present geological 
condition in point of time. 

We have further to bear in mind that the land among the antedilu- 
vians, and down far below the time of Moses, meant so much of the 
surface of our globe as was known by observation, along with an un- 
known and undetermined region beyond; and observation was not 
5 



34 THE LAND. 

then so extensive as to enable men to ascertain its spherical form or 
even the curvature of its surface. To their eye it presented merely 
an irregular surface bounded by the horizon. Hence it appears that, 
so far as the current significance of this leading term is concerned, the 
scene of the six days' creation cannot be affirmed on scriptural author- 
ity alone to have extended beyond the surface known to man. Noth- 
ing can be inferred from the mere words of Scripture concerning 
America, Australia, the islands of the Pacific, or even the remote parts 
of Asia, Africa, or Europe, that were yet unexplored by the race of 
man. We are going beyond the warrant of the sacred narrative, on a 
flight of imagination, whenever we advance a single step beyond the 
sober limits of the usage of the day in which it was written. 

Along with the sky and its conspicuous objects the land then known 
to the primeval man formed the sum total of the observable universe. 
It was as competent to him with his limited information, as it is to us 
with our more extensive but still limited knowledge, to express the all 
by a periphrasis consisting of two terms that have not even yet arrived 
at their full complement of meaning : and it was not the object or the 
effect of divine revelation to anticipate science on these points. 

Passing now from the subject to the verb in this sentence, we ob- 
serve it is in the perfect state, and therefore denotes that the condition 
of confusion and emptiness was not in progress, but had run its course 
and become a settled thing, at least at the time of the next recorded 
event. If the verb had been absent in Hebrew, the sentence would 
have been still complete, and the meaning as follows : " And the land 
was waste and void." With the verb present, therefore, it must de- 
note something more. The verb ii^tj be has here, we conceive, the 
meaning become ; and the import of the sentence is this : " And the 
land had become waste and void." This affords the presumption that 
the part at least of the surface of our globe which fell within the cog- 
nizance of primeval man, and first received the name of land, may not 
have been always a scene of desolation or a sea of turbid waters, but 
may have met with some catastrophe by which its order and fruitful- 
ness had been marred or prevented. 

This sentence, therefore, does not necessarily describe the state of 
the land when first created, but merely intimates a change that may 
have taken place since it was called into existence. What its previous 
condition was, or what interval of time elapsed between the absolute 
creation and the present state of things, is not revealed. How many 
transformations it may have undergone, and what purpose it may have 



GEN. I. 2. 35 

heretofore served, are questions that did not essentially concern the 
moral well-being of man, and are therefore to be asked of some other 
interpreter of nature than the written word. 

This state of things is finished in reference to the event about to be 
narrated. Hence the settled condition of the land, expressed by the 
predicates " a waste and a void," is in studied contrast with the order 
and fulness which are about to be introduced. The present verse is 
therefore to be regarded as a statement of the wants that have to be 
supplied in order to render the land a region of beauty and life. 

The second clause of the verse points out another striking character- 
istic of the scene. "And darkness was upon the face of the deep " : 
Here again the conjunction is connected with the noun. The time is 
the indefinite past, and the circumstance recorded is merely appended 
to that contained in the previous clause. The darkness, therefore, is 
connected with the disorder and solitude which then prevailed on the 
land. It forms a part of the physical derangement which had taken 
place on this part at least of the surface of our globe. 

It is further to be noted that the darkness is described to be on the 
face of the deep. Nothing is said about any other region throughout 
the bounds of existing things. The presumption is, so far as this 
clause determines, that it is a local darkness confined to the face of the 
deep. And the clause itself stands between two others which refer to 
the land, and not to any other part of occupied space. It cannot there- 
fore be intended to describe anything beyond this definite region. 

The deep, the roaring abyss, is another feature in the pre-adamic 
scene. It is not now a region of land and water, but a chaotic mass of 
turbid waters, floating over, it may be, and partly laden with, the ruins 
of a past order of things ; at all events not at present possessing the 
order of vegetable and animal life. 

The last clause introduces a new and unexpected element into the 
scene of desolation. The sentence is, as heretofore, coupled to the 
preceding one by the noun or subject. This indicates still a conjunc- 
tion of things, and not a series of events. The phrase D* 1 !"^ Tl^ means 
the spirit of God, as it is elsewhere uniformly applied to spirit, and as 
f]rrj brooded, does not describe the action of wind. The verbal form 
employed is the imperfect participle, and therefore denotes a work in 
the actual process of accomplishment. The brooding of the spirit of 
God is evidently the originating cause of the reorganization of things 
on the land, by the creative work which is successively described in the 
following passage. 



36 THE LAND. 

It is here intimated that God is a spirit. For " the spirit of God f 
is equivalent to " God who is a spirit." This is that essential charac- 
teristic of the Everlasting which makes creation possible. Many 
philosophers, ancient and modern, have felt the difficulty of proceeding 
from the one to the many ; in other words, of evolving the actual 
multiplicity of things out of the absolutely one. And no wonder. 
For the absolutely one, the pure monad that has no internal relation, 
no complexity of quality or faculty, is barren, and must remain alone. 
It is, in fact, nothing ; not merely no thing, but absolutely naught. 
The simplest possible existent must have being, and that to which 
this being belongs, and, moreover, some specific or definite character 
by which it is what it is. This character seldom consists of one qual- 
ity ; usually, if not universally, of more than one. Hence in the 
Eternal One may and must be that character which is the concen- 
tration of all the causative antecedents of a universe of things. The 
first of these is will. Without free choice there can be no beginning 
of things. Hence matter cannot be a creator. But will needs, cannot 
be without, wisdom to plan and power to execute what is to be 
willed. These are the three essential attributes of spirit. The man- 
ifold wisdom of the Eternal Spirit, combined with his equally manifold 
power, is adequate to the creation of a manifold system of things. Let 
the free behest be given, and the universe starts into being. 

It would be rash and out of place to speculate on the nature of the 
brooding here mentioned further than it is explained by the event. 
We could not see any use of a mere wind blowing over the water, as 
it would be productive of none of the subsequent effects. At the 
same time, we may conceive the spirit of God to manifest its energy 
in some outward effect, which may bear a fair analogy to the natural 
figure by which it is represented. Chemical forces, as the prime 
agents, are not to be thought of here, as they are totally inadequate to 
the production of the results in question. Nothing but a creative or 
absolutely initiative power could give rise to a change so great and 
fundamental as the construction of an Adamic abode out of the lumin- 
ous, aerial, aqueous, and terrene materials of the preexistent earth, 
and the production of the new vegetable and animal species with which 
it was now to be replenished. 

Such is the intimation we gather from the text, when it declares 
that " the spirit of God was brooding upon the face of the waters." 
It means something more than the ordinary power put forth by the 
Great Being for the natural sustenance and development of the uni- 



GEN. I. 3-5. 37 

verse which he has called into existence. It indicates a new and 
special display of omnipotence. for the present exigencies of this part 
of the realm of creation. Such an occasional, and, for ought we know, 
ordinary though supernatural interposition, is quite in harmony with 
the perfect freedom of the Most High in the changing conditions of a 
particular region, while the absolute impossibility of its occurrence 
would be totally at variance with this essential attribute of a spiritual 
nature. 

In addition to this, we cannot see how a universe of moral beings 
can be governed on any other principle ; while, on the other hand, 
the principle itself is perfectly compatible with the administration of 
the whole according to a predetermined plan, and does not involve any 
vacillation of purpose on the part of the Great Designer. 

We observe, also, that this creative power is put forth on the face 
of the waters, and is therefore confined to the land mentioned in the 
previous part of the verse and its superincumbent atmosphere. 

Thus this primeval document proceeds, in an orderly way, to por- 
tray to us in a single verse the state of the land antecedent to its being 
fitted up anew as a meet dwelling-place for man. 



III. THE FIRST DAY. — Gen. i. 3-5. 

3. *ficx say, bid. After this verb comes the thing said in the words 
of the speaker, or an equivalent expression. In this respect it cor- 
responds with our English say. 

"Vis light. Light is simply that which makes a sensible impression 
on the organs of vision. It belongs to a class of things which occa- 
sionally produce the same effect. 

*vgR*1 then said. Here we have come to the narrative or the rec- 
ord of a series of events. The conjunction is prefixed to the verb, to 
indicate the connection of the event it records with that which pre- 
cedes. There is here, therefore, a sequence in the order of time. In 
a chain of events, the narrative follows the order of occurrence. Col- 
lateral chains of events must of necessity be recorded in successive 
paragraphs. The first paragraph carries on one line of incidents to a fit 
resting-place. The next may go back to take up the record of another 
line. Hence a new paragraph beginning with a conjoined verb is 
to be connected in time, not with the last sentence of the preceding 



38 THE FIRST DAY. 

one, but with some sentence in the preceding narrative more or less 
distant from its terminating point (see on ver. 5, and ii. 3). Even a 
single verse may be a paragraph in itself referring to a point of time 
antecedent to the preceding sentence. 

A verb so conjoined in narrative is in Hebrew put in the incipient 
or imperfect form, as the narrator conceives the events to grow each 
out of that already past. He himself follows the incidents step by 
step down the pathway of time, and hence the initial aspect of each 
event is towards him, as it actually comes upon the stage of existence. 

As the event now before us belongs to past time, this verb is well 
enough rendered by the past tense of our English verb. This tense 
in English is at present indefinite, as it does not determine the state of 
the event as either beginning, continuing, or concluded. It is not im- 
probable, however, that it originally designated the first of these states, 
and came by degrees to be indefinite. The English present also may 
have denoted an incipient, and then an imperfect or indefinite. 

3. fi^n see (6paw?) "flat emit light, Sn&t'n see by light. 
nia good. Opp. an . 

4. fctnjj cry, call. 

2ft$ evening, sunset. A space of time before and after sunset. 
BW? two evenings, a certain time before sunset, and the time between 
sunset and the end of twilight. SWSfi *pa the interval between the 
two evenings, from sunset to the end of twilight, according to the Kara- 
ites and Samaritans ; from sun declining to sunset, according to the 
Pharisees and Rabbinists. It might be the time from the beginning 
of the one to the beginning of the other, from the end of the one to the end 
of the other, or from the beginning of the one to the end of the other. 
The last is the most suitable for all the passages in which it occurs. 
These are ten in number, all in the law (Ex. xii. 6, xvi. 12, xxix. 
31, 41, xxx. 8 ; Lev. xxiii. 5 ; Num. ix. 3, 5, 8, xxviii. 4). The 
slaying of the evening lamb and of the passover lamb, the eating of 
the latter and the lighting of the lamps, took place in the interval so 
designated. 

At the end of this portion of the sacred text we have the first S . 
This is explained in the Introduction, Section VII. 

3. Then said God, Let there be light ; and there was light. 
4. Then saw God the light that it was good : then divided God 
between the light and between the darkness. 5. Then called 



GEN. I. 3-5. 39 

God to the light, day, and to the darkness he called night. 
Then was evening, then was morning, day one. IT 1. 

The first day's work is the calling of light into being. Here the 
design is evidently to remove one of the defects mentioned in the pre- 
ceding verse, — " and darkness was upon the face of the deep." The 
scene of this creative act is therefore coincident with that of the dark- 
ness it is intended to displace. The interference of supernatural power 
to cause the presence of light in this region, intimates that the powers 
of nature were inadequate to this effect. But it does not determine 
whether or not light had already existed elsewhere, and had even at 
one time penetrated into this now darkened region, and was still pre- 
vailing in the other realms of space beyond the face of the deep. Nor 
does it determine whether by a change of the polar axis, by the rare- 
faction of the gaseous medium above, or by what other means, light 
was made to visit this region of the globe with its agreeable and quick- 
ening influences. We only read that it did not then illuminate the 
deep of waters, and that by the potent word of God it was then sum- 
moned into being. This is an act of creative power ; for it is a calling 
into existence that which had previously no existence in that place, and 
was not owing to the mere development of nature. Hence the act of 
omnipotence here recorded is not at variance with the existence of 
light among the elements of that universe of nature, the absolute crea- 
tion of which is affirmed in the first verse. 

3. Then said God. In this verse God speaks. From this we 
learn that he not only is, but is such that he can express his will and 
commune with his intelligent creatures. He is manifest not only by 
his creation, but by himself. If light had come into existence without 
a perceptible cause, we should still have inferred a first Causer by an 
intuitive principle which demands an adequate cause for anything 
making its appearance which was not before. But when God says, 
" Be light," in the audience of his intelligent creatures, and light 
forthwith comes into view, they perceive God commanding, as well as 
light appearing. 

Speech is the proper mode of spiritual manifestation. Thinking, 
willing, acting are the movements of spirit, and speech is the index 
of that which is thought, willed, and done. Now, as the essence of 
God is the spirit which thinks and acts, so the form of God is that in 
which the spirit speaks, and otherwise meets the observations of in- 
telligent beings. In these three verses, then, we have God, the spirit 



40 THE FIEST DAY. 

of God, and the word of God. And as the term spirit is transferred 
from an inanimate thing to signify an intelligent agent, so the term 
word is capable of receiving a similar change of application. 

Inadvertent critics of the Bible object to God being described as 
speaking, or performing any other act that is proper only to the human 
frame or spirit. They say it is anthropomorphic or anthropopathic, 
implies a gross, material, or human idea of God, and is therefore un- 
worthy of him and of his word. But they forget that great law of 
thought and speech by which we apprehend analogies, and with a wise 
economy call the analogues by the same name. Almost all the words 
we apply to mental things were originally borrowed from our vocabu- 
lary for the material world, and therefore really figurative, until by 
long habit the metaphor was forgotten, and they became to all intents 
and purposes literal. And philosophers never have and never will 
have devised a more excellent way of husbanding words, marking 
analogies, and fitly expressing spiritual things. Our phraseology for 
mental ideas, though lifted up from 'a lower sphere, has not landed us 
in spiritualism, but enabled us to converse about the metaphysical with 
the utmost purity and propriety. 

And as this holds true of human thoughts and actions, so does it 
apply with equal truth to the divine ways and works. Let there be in 
our minds right notions of God, and the tropical language we must 
and ought to employ in speaking of divine things will derive no taint 
of error from its original application to their human analogues. Scrip- 
ture communicates those adequate notions of the most High God 
which are the fit corrective of its necessarily metaphorical language 
concerning the things of God. Accordingly the intelligent perusal of 
the Bible has never produced idolatry ; but, on the other hand, has 
communicated even to its critics the just conceptions they have ac- 
quired of the spiritual nature of the one true God. 

It ought to be remembered, also, that the very principle of all lan- 
guage is the use of signs for things, that the trope is only a special 
application of this principle according to the law of parsimony, and 
that the East is peculiarly addicted to the use of tropical language. 
Let not western metaphysics misjudge, lest it be found to misunder- 
stand eastern aesthetics. 

It is interesting to observe in the self-manifesting God the great 
archetypes of which the semblances are found in man. Here we have 
the sign-making or signifying faculty in exercise. Whether there 
were created witnesses present at the issue of this divine command, 



GEN. I. 3-5. 41 

we are not here informed. Their presence, however, was not neces- 
sary to give significance to the act of speech, any more than to that 
of self-manifestation. God may manifest himself and speak, though 
there be none to see and hear. 

We see, too, here the name in existence before the thing, because it 
primarily refers to the thing as contemplated in thought. 

The self-manifesting God and the self-manifesting act of speaking 
are here antecedent to the act of creation, or the coming of the thing 
into existence. This teaches us that creation is a different thing from 
self-manifestation or emanation. God is ; he manifests himself ; he 
speaks ; and lastly he puts forth the power, and the thing is clone. 

Let there he light. The word he simply denotes the existence of the 
light, by whatever means or from whatever quarter it comes into the 
given locality. It might have been by an absolute act of pure crea- 
tion or making out of nothing. But it may equally well be effected 
by any supernatural operation which removes an otherwise insur- 
mountable hinderance, and opens the way for the already existing light 
to penetrate into the hitherto darkened region. This phrase is there- 
fore in perfect harmony with preexistence of light among the other 
elementary parts of the universe from the very beginning of things. 
And it is no less consonant with the fact that heat, of which light is a 
species or form, is, and has from the beginning been, present in all 
those chemical changes by which the process of universal nature is 
carried on through all its innumerable cycles. 

4. Then saw God the light that it was good. God contem- 
plates his work, and derives the feeling of complacence from the per- 
ception of its excellence. Here we have two other archetypal facul- 
ties displayed in God, which subsequently make their appearance in 
the nature of man, the understanding, and the judgment. 

The perception of things external to himself is an important fact in 
the relation between the Creator and the creature. It implies that the 
created thing is distinct from the creating Being, and external to him. 
It therefore contradicts pantheism in all its forms. 

The judgment is merely another branch of the apprehensive or cog- 
nitive faculty, by which we note physical and ethical relations and dis- 
tinctions of things. It comes immediately into view on observing the 
object now called into existence. God saw " that it was good." That 
is good in general which fulfils the end of its being. The relation of 
good and evil has a place and an application in the physical world, but 
it ascends through all the grades of the intellectual and the moral. 
6 



42 THE FIRST DAY. 

That form of the judgment which takes cognizance of moral distinc- 
tions is of so much importance as to have received a distinct name, — 
the conscience, or moral sense. 

Here the moral rectitude of God is vindicated, inasmuch as the 
work of his power is manifestly good. This refutes the doctrine of 
the two principles, the one good and the other evil, which the Per- 
sian sages have devised in order to account for the presence of moral 
and physical evil along with the good in the present condition of our 
world. « 

Divided between the light and between the darkness* God then sep- 
arates light and darkness, by assigning to each its relative position in 
time and space. This no doubt refers to the vicissitudes of day and 
night, as we learn from the following verse : 

o. Called to the light, day, etc. After separating the light and the 
darkness, he gives them the new names of day and night, according to 
the limitations under which they were now placed. Before this epoch 
in the history of the earth there was no rational inhabitant, and there- 
fore no use of naming. The assigning of names, therefore, is an in- 
dication that we have arrived at that stage in which names for things 
will be necessary, because a rational creature is about to appear on the 
scene. 

Naming seems to be designating according to the specific mode in 
which the general notion is realized in the thing named. This is illus- 
trated by several instances which occur in the following part of the 
chapter. It is the right of the maker, owner, or other superior to 
give a name ; and hence the receiving of a name indicates the subor- 
dination of the thing named to the namer. Name and thing corres- 
pond : the former is the sign of the latter ; hence in the concrete 
matter-of-fact style of Scripture the name is often put for the thing, 
quality, person, or authority it represents. 

The designations of day and night explain to us what is the meaning 
of dividing the light from the darkness. It is the separation of the one 
from the other, and the orderly distribution of each over the different 
parts of the earth's surface in the course of a night and a day. This 
could only be effected in the space of a diurnal revolution of the earth 
on its axis. Accordingly, if light were radiated from a particular 
region in the sky, and thus separated from darkness at a certain 
meridian, while the earth performed its daily round, the successive 
changes of evening, night, morning, day, would naturally present them- 



GEN. I. 3-5. 43 

selves in slow and stately progress during that first great act of 
creation. 

Thus we have evidence that the diurnal revolution of the earth took 
place on the first day of the last creation. We are not told whether it 
occurred before that time. If ever there was a time when the earth 
did not revolve, or revolved on a different axis or according to a dif- 
ferent law from the present, the first revolution or change of revolution 
must have produced a Tast change in the face of things, the marks of 
which would remain to this day, whether the impulse was communi- 
cated to the solid mass alone, or simultaneously to all the loose matter 
resting on its surface. But the text gives no intimation of such a 
change. 

At present, however, let us recollect we have only to do with the 
land known to antediluvian man, and the coming of light into existence 
over that region, according to the existing arrangement of day and 
night. How far the breaking forth of the light may have extended 
beyond the land known to the writer, the present narrative does not 
enable us to determine. 

We are now prepared to conclude that the entrance of light into this 
darkened region was effected by such a change in its position or in its 
superincumbent atmosphere as allowed the interchange of night and 
day to become discernible, while at the same time so much obscurity 
still remained as to exclude the heavenly bodies from view. We have 
learned from the first verse that these heavenly orbs were already 
created. The luminous element that plays so conspicuous and essen- 
tial a part in the process of nature, must have formed a part of that 
original creation. The removal of darkness, therefore, from the local- 
ity mentioned, is merely owing to a new adjustment by which the 
preexistent light was made to visit the surface of the abyss with its 
cheering and enlivening beams. 

In this case, indeed, the real change is effected, not in the light itself, 
but in the intervening medium which was impervious to its rays. But 
it is to be remembered, on the other hand, that the actual result of the 
divine interposition is still the diffusion of light over the face of the 
watery deep, and that the actual phenomena of the change, as they 
would strike an onlooker, and not the invisible springs of the six days' 
creation, are described in the chapter before us. 

Then was evening, then was morning, day one. The last clause of 
the verse is a resumption of the whole process of time during this first 
work of creation. This is accordingly a simple and striking example 



44 THE FIRST DAY. 

of two lines of narrative parallel to each other and exactly coinciding 
in respect of time. In general we find the one line overlapping only 
a part of the other. 

The day is described, according to the Hebrew mode of narrative, 
by its starting-point, " the evening." The first half of its course is run 
out during the night. The next half in like manner commences with 
" the morning," and goes through its round in the proper day. Then 
the whole period is described as " one day." The point of termination 
for the day is thus the evening again, which agrees with the Hebrew 
division of time (Lev. xxiii. 32). 

To make " the evening " here the end of the first day, and so " the 
morning " the end of the first night, as is done by some interpreters, 
is therefore equally inconsistent with the grammar of the Hebrews and 
with their mode of reckoning time. It also defines the diurnal period, 
by noting first its middle point and then its termination, which does not 
seem to be natural. It further defines the period of sunshine, or the 
day proper, by " the evening," and the night by the morning ; a pro- 
ceeding equally unnatural. It has not even the advantage of making 
the event of the latter clause subsequent to that of the former. For 
the day of twenty-four hours is wholly spent in dividing the light from 
the darkness ; and the self-same day is described again in this clause, 
take it how we will. This interpretation of the clause is therefore to 
be rejected. 

The days of this creation are natural days of twenty-four hours each. 
We may not depart from the ordinary meaning of the word without a 
sufficient warrant either in the text of Scripture or in the law of nature. 
But we have not yet found any such warrant. Only necessity can 
force us to such an expedient. Scripture, on the other hand, warrants 
us in retaining the common meaning by yielding no hint of another, 
and by introducing " evening, night, morning, day," as its ordinary 
divisions. Nature favors the same interpretation. All geological 
changes are of course subsequent to the great event recorded in the 
first verse, which is the beginning of things. All such changes, except 
the one recorded in the six days' creation, are with equal certainty 
antecedent to the state of things described in the second verse. Hence 
no lengthened period is required for this last creative interposition. 

" Day one " is here used for the first day, the cardinal one being not 
usually employed for the ordinal in Hebrew (Gen. viii. 13; Exod. 
xl. 2). It cannot indicate any emphasis or singularity in the day, as 
it is in no respect different from the other days of creation. It implies 



GEN. I. 6-8. 45 

that the two parts before mentioned make up one day. But this is 
equally implied by all the ordinals on the other days. 

This day is in many ways interesting to us. It is the first day of 
the last creation ; it is the first day of the week ; it is the day of the res- 
urrection of the Messiah ; and it has become the Christian Sabbath. 

The first five verses form the first parashah or section of the He- 
brew text. If this division come from the author, it indicates that he 
regarded the first day's work as the body of the narrative, and the 
creation of the universe, in the first verse, and the condition of the 
earth, in the second, as mere preliminaries to introduce and elucidate 
his main statement. If, on the contrary, it proceed from some tran- 
scriber of a subsequent period, it may indicate that he considered the 
creative work of the first day to consist of two parts, — first, an abso- 
lute creation ; and, second, a supplementary act, by which the primary 
universe was first enlightened. 



IV. THE SECOND DAY. — Gen. i. 6-8. 

6. Spp'i expanse ; a-repiwjjia, sjs'n spread out by beating, as leaf gold. 
This expanse was not understood to be solid, as the fowl is said to fly 
on the face of it (Gen. i. 21). It is also described as luminous (Dan. 
xii. 3), and as a monument of divine power (Ps. cl. 1). 

7. Jibs' work on, make out of already existing materials. 

6. Then said God, Let there be an expanse in the midst of 
the water, and let it be dividing between water to water. 7. 
Then made God the expanse, and divided between the water 
which was from above to the expanse, and between the water 
which was from beneath to the expanse : and it was so. 8. 
Then called God to the expanse, heaven : then was evening, 
then was morning, day second. 1 2. 

The second act of creative power bears upon the deep of waters, over 
which the darkness had prevailed, and by which the solid crust was 
Still overlaid. This mass of turbid and noisy water must be reduced 
to order, and confined within certain limits, before the land can be 



46 THE SECOND DAY. 

reached. According to the laws of material nature, light or heat must 
be an essential factor in all physical changes, especially in the produc- 
tion of gases and vapors. Hence its presence and activity are the first 
thing required in instituting a new process of nature. Air naturally 
takes the next place, as it is equally essential to the maintenance of 
vegetable and animal life. Hence its adjustment is the second step in 
this latest effort of creation. 

6. Let there be an expanse in the midst of the water. For this 
purpose God now calls into existence the expanse. This is that inter- 
val of space between the earth on the one side and the birds on the 
wing, the clouds and the heavenly bodies on the other, the lower part 
of which we know to be occupied by the air. This will appear more 
clearly from a comparison of other passages in this chapter (Gen. 1. 
14, 20). 

And let it be dividing between water and water. It appears that the 
water in a liquid state was in contact with another mass of water, in 
the shape of dense fogs and vapors ; not merely overhanging, but actu- 
ally resting on the waters beneath. The object of the expanse is to 
divide the waters which are under it from those which are above it. 
Hence it appears that the thing really done is, not to create the space 
that extends indefinitely above our heads (which, being in itself no 
thing, but only room for things, requires no creating), but to establish 
in it the intended disposition of the waters in two separate masses, the 
one above, and the other below the intervening expanse. This we 
know is effected by means of the atmosphere, which receives a large 
body of water in the state of vapor, and bears up a visible portion 
of it in the form of clouds. These ever-returning and ever-varying 
piles of mist strike the eye of the unsophisticated spectator ; and when 
the dew is observed on the grass, or the showers of rain, hail, and 
snow are seen falling on the ground, the conclusion is obvious, that 
above the expanse, be the distance small or great, is laid up an unseen 
and inexhaustible treasury of water, by which the earth may be per- 
petually bedewed and irrigated. The aqueous vapor is itself, as well 
as the element with which it is mingled, invisible and impalpable ; but 
when condensed by cold it becomes apparent to the eye in the form 
of mists and clouds, and, at a certain point of coolness, begins to de- 
posit itself in the palpable form of dew, rain, hail, or snow. As soon 
as it becomes obvious to the sense it receives distinguishing names, 
according to its varying forms. But the air being invisible, is unno- 
ticed by the primitive observer until it is put in motion, when it re- 



GEN. I. 6-8. 47 

ceives the name of wind. The space it occupies is merely denominated 
the expanse ; that is, the interval between us and the various bodies 
that float above and hang upon nothing, or nothing perceptible to the 
eye. 

The state of things before this creative movement may be called one 
of disturbance and disorder, in comparison with the present condition 
of the atmosphere. This disturbance in the relations of air and water 
was so great that it could not be reduced to the present order without 
a supernatural cause. Whether any other gases, noxious or innocu- 
ous, entered into the constitution of the previous atmosphere, or 
whether any other ingredients were once held in solution by the wa- 
tery deep, we are not informed. Whether any volcanic or plutonic 
violence had disturbed the scene, and raised a dense mass of gaseous 
damp and fuliginous matter into the airy region, is not stated. How 
faAhe disorder extended we cannot tell. We are merely certain that 
it reached over all the land known to man during the interval between 
this creation and the deluge. Whether this disorder was temporary 
or of long standing, and whether the change was effected by altering 
the axis of the earth's rotation, and thereby the climate of the land of 
primeval man, or by a less extensive movement confined to the region 
under consideration, are questions on which we receive no instruction, 
because the solution does not concern our well-being. As soon as 
human welfare comes to be in any way connected with such knowl- 
edge, it will by some means be made attainable. 

The introduction of the expanse produced a vast change for the 
better on the surface of the earth. The heavy mass of murky damp 
and aqueous steam commingling with the abyss of waters beneath is 
cleared away. The fogs are lifted up to the higher regions of the sky, 
or attenuated into an invisible vapor. A leaden mass of clouds still 
overshadows the heavens. But a breathing space of pure pellucid 
air now intervenes between the upper and lower waters, enveloping 
the surface of the earth, and fitted for the respiration of the flora and 
fauna of a new world. 

Let it be noted that the word be is here again employed to denote 
the commencement of a new adjustment of the atmosphere. This, 
accordingly, does not imply the absolute creation on the second day of 
our present atmosphere : it merely indicates the constitution of it out 
of the materials already at hand, — the selecting and due apportionment 
of the proper elements ; the relegation of all now foreign elements to 
their own places ; the dissipation of the lazy, deadening damps, and 



48 THE SECOND DAY. 

the establishment of a clear and pure air fit for the use of the future 
man. Any or all of these alterations will satisfy the form of expression 
here adopted. 

7. Then made God the expanse. Here the distinction between 
command and execution is made still more prominent than in the 
third Terse. For the word of command stands in one verse, and the 
effect realized is related in the next. Nay, we have the doing of 
the thing and the thing done separately expressed. For, after stating 
that God made the expanse, it is added, " and it was so." The work 
accomplished took a permanent form, in which it remained a standing 
monument of divine wisdom and power. 

8. Then called God to the expanse, heaven. This expanse is, then, 
the proper and original skies. "We have here an interesting and 
instructive example of the way in which words expand in their signifi- 
cance from the near, the simple, the obvious, to the far and wide, the 
complex and the inferential. The heaven, in the first instance, meant 
the open space above the surface in which we breathe and move, in 
which the birds fly and the clouds float. This is the atmosphere. 
Then it stretches away into the seemingly boundless regions of space, 
in which the countless orbs of luminous and of opaque surfaces circum- 
ambulate. Then the heavens come to signify the contents of this in- 
definitely augmented expanse, — the celestial luminaries themselves. 
Then, by a still further enlargement of its meaning, we rise to the 
heaven of heavens, the inexpressibly grand and august presence-cham- 
ber of the Most High, where the cherubim and seraphim, the innumer- 
able company of angels, the myriads of saints, move in their several 
grades and spheres, keeping the charge of their Maker, and realizing 
the joy of their being. This is the third heaven (2 Cor. xii. 2) to the 
conception of which the imaginative capacity of the human mind rises 
by an easy gradation. Having once attained to this majestic conception, 
man is so far prepared to conceive and compose that sublime sentence 
with which the book of God opens, — " In the beginning God created 
the heavens and the earth." 

The expanse, or aerial space, in which this arrangement of things 
has been effected, having received its appropriate name, is recognized 
as an accomplished fact, and the second day is closed. 



GEN. I. 9-13. 49 



V. THE THIRD DAY. -Gen. i. 9-13. 

9. !"rt|3 turn, bind, gather, expect. 

iW3£ the dry, the ground, tfh^ he dry. tna be abashed. 
11. stb 1 ! green thing, grass. 
Sb^J herb. 

3HT seed. 3WJ sow, sero. 
•vya fruit. irna taar, fero, <£e/3co. 

9. Then said God, Gathered be the water from under the 
skies unto one place, and let the ground appear : and it was 
so. 10. Then called God to the ground, land ; and to the 
gathering of the water called he seas : then saw God that it 
was good. 

11. Then said God, Grow let the land grass, herb yielding 
seed, fruit tree bearing fruit after its kind, in which is its seed, 
upon the land : and it was so. 12. Then brought the land 
forth grass, herb yielding seed after its kind, and tree bear- 
ing fruit, in which was its seed after its kind: then saw God 
that it was good. 13. Then was evening, then was morning, 
day third. IT 3. 

The work of creation on this day is evidently twofold, — the distribu- 
tion of land and water, and the creation of plants. The former part 
of it is completed, named, reviewed, and approved before the latter is 
commenced. All that has been done before this, indeed, is preparatory 
to the introduction of the vegetable kingdom. This may be regarded 
as the first stage of the present creative process. 

9. Let the water be gathered to one place ; let the ground appear. 
This refers to the yet overflowing deep of waters (v. 2) under the 
expanse. They must be confined within certain limits. For this 
purpose the order is issued, that they be gathered into one place j that 
is, evidently, into a place apart from that designed for the land. 

10. Then called God to the ground, land. "We use the word 
ground to denote the dry surface left after the retreat of the waters. 
To this the Creator applies the term yy& land, earth. Hence we find 
that the primitive meaning of this term was land, the dry solid surface 

7 



50 THE THIRD DAY. 

of matter on which we stand. This meaning it still retains in all its 
various applications (see on v. 2). As it was soon learned by expe- 
rience that the solid ground was continuous at the bottom of the water- 
masses, and that these were a mere superficial deposit gathering into 
the hollows, the term was, by an easy extension of its meaning, applied 
to the whole surface, as it was diversified by land and water. Oui 
word earth is the term to express it in this more extended sense. In 
this sense it was the meet counterpart of the heavens in that complex 
phrase by which the universe of things is expressed. 

And to the gathering of the waters called he seas. In contradistinc- 
tion to the land, the gathered waters are called seas ; a term applied in 
Scripture to any large collection of water, even though seen to be sur- 
rounded by land ; as, the salt sea, the sea of Kinnereth, the sea of the 
plain or valley, the fore sea, the hinder sea ( Gen. xiv. 3 ; Num. xxxiv. 
11 ; Deut. iv. 49 ; Joel ii. 20 ; Deut. xi. 24). The plural form " seas " 
shows that the " one place " consists of several basins, all of which 
taken together are called the place of the waters. 

The Scripture, according to its manner, notices only the palpable 
result ; namely, a diversified scene of " land " and " seas." The sacred 
singer possibly hints at the process in Ps. civ. 6-8 : " The deep as a 
garment thou didst spread over it ; above the mountains stood the 
waters. At thy rebuke they fled ; at the voice of thy thunder they 
hasted away. They go up the mountains ; they go down the valleys ; 
unto the place that thou hast founded for them." This description is 
highly poetical, and therefore true to nature. The hills are to rise out 
of the waters above them. The agitated waters dash up the stirring 
mountains, but, as these ascend, at length sink into the valleys, and 
take the place allotted for them. Plainly the result was accomplished 
by lowering some and elevating other parts of the solid ground. Over 
this inequality of surface, the waters, which before overspread the whole 
ground, flowed into the hollows, and the elevated regions became dry 
land. This is a kind of geological change which has been long known 
to the students of nature. Such changes have often been sudden and 
violent. Alterations of level, of a gradual character, are known to be 
going on at all times. 

This disposition of land and water prepares for the second step, 
which is the main work of this day ; namely, the creation of plants. 
We are now come to the removal of another defect in the state of the 
earth, mentioned in the second verse, — its deformity, or rude and 
uncouth appearance. 



GEN. I. 9-13. 51 

11. Let the land grow. The plants are said to be products of 
the land, because they spring from the dry ground, and a margin round 
it where the water is so shallow as to permit the light and heat to 
reach the bottom. The land is said to grow or bring forth plants ; not 
because it is endowed with any inherent power to generate plants, but 
because it is the element in which they are to take root, and from 
which they are to spring forth. 

Grass, herb yielding seed, fruit tree bearing fruit. The plants now 
created are divided into three classes, — grass, herb, and tree. In the 
first, the seed is not noticed, as not obvious to the eye ; in the second, 
the seed is the striking characteristic ; in the third, the fruit, " in which 
is its seed," in which the seed is enclosed, forms the distinguishing 
mark. This division is simple and natural. It proceeds upon two 
concurrent marks, — the structure and the seed. In the first, the green 
leaf or blade is prominent ; in the second, the stalk ; in the third, the 
woody texture. In the first, the seed is not conspicuous ; in the sec- 
ond, it is conspicuous ; in the third, it is enclosed in a fruit which is 
conspicuous. This division corresponds with certain classes in our 
present systems of botany. But it is much less complex than any 
of them, and is founded upon obvious characteristics. The plants 
that are on the margin of these great divisions may be arranged con- 
veniently enough under one or another of them, according to their 
several orders or species. 

After its kind. This phrase intimates that like produces like, and 
therefore that the " kinds " or species are fixed, and do not run into 
one another. In this little phrase the theory of one species being 
developed from another is denied. 

12. Here the fulfilment of the divine command is detailed, after 
being summed up in the words " it was so," at the close of the previ- 
ous verse. This seems to arise from the nature of growth, which has 
a commencement, indeed, but goes on without ceasing in a progressive 
development. It appears from the text that the full plants, and not 
the seeds, germs, or roots, were created. The land sent forth grass, 
herb, tree, each in its fully developed form. This was absolutely ne- 
cessary, if man and the land animals were to be sustained by grasses, 
seeds, and fruits. 

Thus the land begins to assume the form of beauty and fertility. 
Its bare and rough soil is set with the germs of an incipient verdure. 
It has already ceased to be " a waste." And now, at the end of this 
third day, let us pause to review the natural order in which everything 



52 THE THIRD DAY. 

has been thus far done. It was necessary to produce light in the first 
place, because without this potent element water could not pass into 
vapor, and rise on the wings of the buoyant air into the region above 
the expanse. The atmosphere must in the next place be reduced to 
order, and charged with its treasures of vapor, before the plants could 
commence the process of growth, even though stimulated by the influ- 
ence of light and heat. Again, the waters must be withdrawn from a 
portion of the solid surface before the plants could be placed in the 
ground, so as to have the full benefit of the light, air, and vapor in 
enabling them to draw from the soil the sap by which they are to be 
nourished. "When all these conditions are fulfilled, then the plants 
themselves are called into existence, and the first cycle of the new 
creation is completed. 

Could not the Eternal have accomplished all this in one day ? 
Doubtless he might. He might have effected it all in an instant of 
time. And he might have compressed the growth and development 
of centuries into a moment. He might even by possibility have con- 
structed the stratifications of the earth's crust with all their slips, ele- 
vations, depressions, unconformities, and organic formations in a day. 
And, lastly, he might have carried on to completion all the evolutions 
of universal nature that have since taken place or will hereafter take 
place till the last hour has struck on the clock of time. But what 
then ? What purpose would have been served by all this speed ? It 
is obvious that the above and such like questions are not wisely put. 
The very nature of the Eternal shows the futility of such specula- 
tions. Is the commodity of time so scarce with him that he must or 
should for any good reason sum up the course of a universe of things 
in an infinitesimal portion of its duration ? May we not, rather, must 
we not, soberly conclude that there is a due proportion between the 
action and the time of the action, the creation to be developed and the 
time of development. Both the beginning and the process* of this 
latest creation are to a nicety adjusted to the preexistent and concur- 
rent state of things. And the development of that which is created 
not only displays a mutual harmony and exact coincidence in the prog- 
ress of all its other parts, but is at the same time finely adapted to the 
constitution of man, and the natural, safe, and healthy ratio of his 
physical and metaphysical movements. 



GEN. I. 14-19. 



53 



VI. THE FOURTH DAY. — Gen. i. 14-19. 

14. liKa a light, luminary, centre of radiant light. 
S"J2ia set time, season. 

"Words beginning with a formative a usually signify that in which 
the simple quality resides or is realized. Hence they often denote 
place. 

17. ins give, hold out, show, "jn stretch, hold out. Tendo, teneo, tcikd. 

14. Then said God, Let there be lights in the expanse of the 
heavens, to divide between the day and between the night ; 
and let them have been for signs and for seasons, and for days 
and years. 15. And let them have been for lights in the ex- 
panse of the heavens, to shine upon the earth : and it was so. 

16. Then made God the two great lights, the great light to 
rule the day, the little light to rule the night, and the stars. 

17. Then gave them God in the expanse of the heavens, to 
shine upon the earth. 18. And to rule over the day and over 
the night, and to divide between the light and between the 
darkness : then saw God that it was good. 19. Then was even- 
ing, then was morning, day fourth. IF 4. 

The darkness has been removed from the face of the deep, its 
waters have been distributed in due proportions above and below the 
expanse ; the lower waters have retired and given place to the emerg- 
ing land, and the wasteness of the land thus exposed to view has 
begun td be adorned with the living forms of a new vegetation. It 
only remains to remove the " void " by peopling this now fair and 
fertile world with the animal kingdom. For this purpose the Great 
Designer begins a new cycle of supernatural operations. 

14, 15. Lights. The work of the fourth day has much in common 
with that of the first, which, indeed it continues and completes. Both 
deal with light, and with dividing between light and darkness, or day 
and night. Let there be. They agree also in choosing the word be, to 
express the nature of the operation which is here performed. But the 
fourth day advances on the first. It brings into view the luminaries, 



54 THE FOURTH DAY. 

the light radiators, the source, while the first only indicated the stream. 
It contemplates the far expanse, while the first regards only the 
near. 

For signs and for seasons, and for days and years. While the first 
day refers only to the day and its twofold division, the fourth refers to 
signs, seasons, days, and years. These lights are for " signs." They are 
to serve as the great natural chronometer of man, having its three units, 
— the day, the month, and the year, — and marking the divisions of 
time, not only for agricultural and social purposes, but also for meeting 
out the eras of human history and the cycles of natural science. They 
are signs of place as well as of time, — topometers, if we may use the 
term. By them the mariner has learned to mark the latitude and lon- 
gitude of his ship, and the astronomer to determine with any assigna- 
ble degree of precision the place as well as the time of the planetary 
orbs of heaven. The " seasons " are the natural seasons of the year, 
and the set times for civil and sacred purposes which man has attached 
to special days and years in the revolution of time. 

As the word " day " is a key to the explanation of the first day's 
work, so is the word " year " to the interpretation of that of the fourth. 
As the cause of the distinction of day and night is the diurnal rotation 
of the earth on its axis in conjunction with a fixed source of light, 
which streamed in on the scene of creation as soon as the natural 
hinderance was removed, so the vicissitudes of the year are owing, 
along with these two conditions, to the annual revolution of the earth 
in its orbit round the sun, together with the obliquity of the ecliptic. 
To the phenomena so occasioned are to be added incidental variations 
arising from the revolution of the moon round the earth, and the small 
modifications caused by the various other bodies of the solar system. 
All these celestial phenomena come out from the artless simplicity of 
the sacred narrative as observable facts on the fourth day of that new 
creation. From the beginning of the solar system the earth must, 
from the nature of things, have revolved around the sun. But whether 
the rate of velocity was ever changed, or the obliquity of the ecliptic 
was now commenced or altered, we do not learn from this record. 

15. To shine upon the earth. The first day spreads the shaded 
gleam of light over the face of the deep. The fourth day unfolds to 
the eye the lamps of heaven, hanging in the expanse of the skies, and 
assigns to them the ofiice of " shining upon the earth." A threefold 
function is thus attributed to the celestial orbs, — to divide day from 
night, to define time and place, and to shine on the earth. The word 



GEN. I. 14-19. 



55 



of command is here very full, running over two verses, with the 
exception of the little clause, " and it was so," stating the result. 

16-19. This result is fully particularized in the next three verses. 
Made. This word corresponds to the word "be" in the command, 
and indicates the disposition and adjustment to a special purpose 
of things previously existing. The two great lights. The well- 
known ones, great in relation to the stars, as seen from the earth. 
The great light, in comparison with the little light. The stars, from 
man's point of view, are insignificant, except in regard to number (Gen. 
xv. 5). 17. God gave them. The absolute giving of the heavenly bodies 
in their places was performed at the time of their actual creation. The 
relative giving here spoken of is that which would appear to an earthly 
spectator, when the intervening veil of clouds would be dissolved by 
the divine agency, and the celestial luminaries would stand forth in all 
their dazzling splendor. 18. To* rule. From their lofty eminence 
they regulate the duration and the business of each period. The whole 
is inspected and approved as before. 

Now let it be remembered that the heavens were created at the 
absolute beginning of things recorded in the first verse, and that they 
included all other things except the earth. Hence, according to this 
document, the sun, moon, and stars were in existence simultaneously 
with our planet. This gives simplicity and order to the whole narra- 
tive. Light comes before us on the first and on the fourth day. Now, 
as two distinct causes of a common effect would be unphilosophical and 
unnecessary, we must hold the one cause to have been in existence on 
these two days. But we have seen that the one cause of the day and 
of the year is a fixed source of radiating light in the sky, combined 
with the diurnal and annual motions of the earth. Thus the recorded 
preexistence of the celestial orbs is consonant with the presumptions 
of reason. The " making " or reconstitution of the atmosphere admits 
their light so far that the alternations of day and night can be dis- 
cerned. The making of the lights of heaven, or the display of them 
in a serene sky by the withdrawal of that opaque canopy of clouds 
that still enveloped the dome above, is then the work of the fourth 
day. 

All is now plain and intelligible. The heavenly bodies become the 
lights of the earth, and the distinguishers not only of day and night, 
but of seasons and years, of times and places. They shed forth their 
unveiled glories and salutary potencies on the budding, waiting land. 
How the higher grade of transparency in the aerial region was effected, 



56 THE FOURTH DAY. 

we cannot tell ; and, therefore, we are not prepared to explain why it 
is accomplished on the fourth day, and not sooner. But from its very 
position in time, we are led to conclude that the constitution of the ex- 
panse, the elevation of a portion of the waters of the deep in the form 
of vapor, the collection of the subaerial water into seas, and the crea- 
tion of plants out of the reeking soil, must all have had an essential 
part, both in retarding till the fourth day, and in then bringing about 
the dispersion of the clouds and the clearing of the atmosphere. What- 
ever remained of hinderance to the outshining of the sun, moon, and 
stars on the land in all their native splendor, was on this day removed 
by the word of divine power. 

Now is the proximate cause of day and night made palpable to the 
observation. Now are the heavenly bodies made to be signs of time 
and place to the intelligent spectator on the earth, to regulate seasons, 
days, months, and years, and to be the luminaries of the world. Now, 
manifestly, the greater light rules the day, as the lesser does the night. 
The Creator has withdrawn the curtain, and set forth the hitherto 
undistinguishable brilliants of space for the illumination of the land and 
the regulation of the changes which diversify its surface. This bright 
display, even if it could have been effected on the first day with due 
regard to the forces of nature already in operation, was unnecessary 
to the unseeing and unmoving world of vegetation, while it was plainly 
requisite for the seeing, choosing, and moving world of animated na- 
ture which was about to be called into existence on the following days. 

The terms employed for the objects here brought forward, — " lights, 
the great light, the little light, the stars ; " for the mode of their mani- 
festation, " be, make, give ; " and for the offices they discharge, " di- 
vide, rule, shine, be for signs, seasons, days, years," — exemplify the 
admirable simplicity of Scripture, and the exact adaptation of its style 
to the unsophisticated mind of primeval man. We have no longer, 
indeed, the naming of the various objects, as on the former days ; prob- 
ably because it would no longer be an important source of inform- 
ation for the elucidation of the narrative. But we have more than an 
equivalent for this in variety of phrase. The several words have been 
already noticed : it only remains to make some general remarks. 

(1.) The sacred writer notes only obvious results, such as come be- 
fore the eye of the observer, and leaves the secondary causes, their 
modes of operation, and their less obtrusive effects, to scientific inquiry. 
The progress of observation is from the foreground to the background 
of nature, from the physical to the metaphysical, and from the objective 



GEN. I. 14-19. 57 

to the subjective. Among the senses, too, the eye is the most promi- 
nent observer in the scenes of the six days. Hence the " lights," they 
(t shine," they are for " signs " and " days," which are in the first in- 
stance objects of vision. They are " given," held or shown forth in the 
heavens. Even " rule " has probably the primitive meaning to be over. 
Starting thus with the visible and the tangible, the Scripture in its 
successive communications advance with us to the inferential, the intu- 
itive, the moral, the spiritual, the divine. 

(2.) The sacred writer also touches merely the heads of things in 
these scenes of creation, without condescending to minute particulars 
or intending to be exhaustive. Hence many actual incidents and in- 
tricacies of these days are left to the well-regulated imagination and 
sober judgment of the reader. To instance such omissions, the moon 
is as much of her time above the horizon during the day as during the 
night. But she is not then the conspicuous object in the scene, or the 
full-orbed reflector of the solar beams, as she is during the night. 
Here the better part is used to mark the whole. The tidal influence 
of the great lights, in which the moon plays the chief part, is also 
unnoticed. Hence we are to expect very many phenomena to be 
altogether omitted, though interesting and important in themselves, 
because they do not come within the present scope of the narrative. 

(3.) The point from which the writer views the scene is never to 
be forgotten, if we would understand these ancient records. He stands 
on earth. He uses his eyes as the organ of observation. He knows 
nothing of the visual angle, of visible as distinguishable from tangible 
magnitude, of relative in comparison with absolute motion on the grand 
scale : he speaks the simple language of the eye. Hence his earth is 
the meet counterpart of the heavens. His sun and moon are great, 
and all the stars are a very little thing. Light comes to be, to him, 
when it reaches the eye. The luminaries are held forth in the heavens, 
when the mist between them and the eye is dissolved. 

(4.) Yet, though not trained to scientific thought or speech, this 
author has the eye of reason open as well as that of sense. It is not 
with him the science of the tangible, but the philosophy of the intuitive, 
that reduces things to their proper dimensions. He traces not the 
secondary cause, but ascends at one glance to the great first cause, the 
manifest act and audible behest of the Eternal Spirit. This imparts a 
sacred dignity to his style, and a transcendent grandeur to his concep- 
tions. In the presence of the high and lofty One that inhabiteth 
eternity, all things terrestrial and celestial are reduced to a common 
8 



58 THE FIFTH DAY. 

level. Man in intelligent relation with God comes forth as the chief 
figure on the scene of terrestrial creation. The narrative takes its 
commanding position as the history of the ways of God with man. 
The commonest primary facts of ordinary observation, when recorded 
in this book, assume a supreme interest as the monuments of eternal 
wisdom and the heralds of the finest and broadest generalizations of a 
consecrated science. The very words are instinct with a germinant 
philosophy, and prove themselves adequate to the expression of the 
loftiest speculations of the eloquent mind. 



VII. THE FIFTH DAY. — Gen. i. 20-23. 

20. YJ& crawl, teem, swarm, abound. An intransitive verb, admit- 
ting, however, an objective noun of its own or a like signification. 

u:Si breath, soul, self. This noun is derived from a root signifying 
to breathe. Its concrete meaning is, therefore, that which breathes, and 
consequently has a body, without which there can be no breathing ; 
hence, a breathing body, and even a body that once had breath (Num. 
vi. 6). As breath is the accompaniment and sign of life, it comes to 
denote life, and hence, a living body, an animal. And as life properly 
signifies animal life, and is therefore essentially connected with feeling, 
appetite, thought, iaB!i, denotes also these qualities, and that which 
possesses them. It is obvious that it denotes the vital principle not 
only in man but in the brute. It is therefore a more comprehensive 
word than our soid, as commonly understood. 

21. "pan long creature, a comprehensive genus, including vast fishes, 
serpents, dragons, crocodiles ; r. stretch. 

22. T\2% break, kneel ; bless. 

20. Then said God, Let the waters abound with the crawler 
that has breath and life, and let fowl fly above the earth, upon 
the face of the expanse of the skies. 21. Then created God 
the great fishes and every living breathing thing that creepeth, 
with which the waters abounded after their kind, and every 
bird of wing after its kind : then saw God that it was good. 
22. Then blessed them God, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, 
and fill the waters in the seas, and let the fowl multiply in the 
land. 23. Then was evening, then was morning, day fifth. \ 5. 



GEN. I. 20-23. 59 

The solitude Q\TX2), the last and greatest defect in the state of the 
earth, is now to be removed by the creation of the various animals that 
are to inhabit it and partake of its vegetable productions. 

On the second day the Creator was occupied with the task of reduc- 
ing the air and water to a habitable state. And now on the corre- 
sponding day of the second three he calls into existence the inhabitants 
of these two elements. Accordingly the animal kingdom is divided 
into three parts in reference to the regions to be inhabited, — fishes, 
birds, and land animals. The fishes and birds are created on this day. 
The fishes seem to be regarded as the lowest type of living creatures. 

They are here subdivided only into the monsters of the deep and the 
smaller species that swarm in the waters. 

20. T/ie crawler (yi'0 includes apparently all animals that have 
short or no legs, and are therefore unable to raise themselves above 
the soil. The aquatic and most amphibious animals come under this 
class. The crawler of living breath, having breath, motion, and sensa- 
tion, the ordinary indications of animal life. Abound with. As in the 
11th verse we have, Let the earth grow grass (stn Xfcftfi), so here we 
have, Let the waters crawl with the crawler (yy4 WB 1 )) ; the verb 
and noun having the same root. The waters are here not the cause 
but the element of the fish, as the air of the fowl. Fowl, every thing 
that has wings. The face of the expanse. The expanse is here proved 
to be aerial or spatial ; not solid, as the fowl can fly on it. 

21. Created. Here the author uses this word for the second time. 
In the selection of different words to express the divine operation, two 
considerations seem to have guided the author's pen, — variety and 
propriety of diction. The diversity of words appears to indicate a di- 
versity in the mode of exercising the divine power. On the first day 
(v. 3) a new admission of light into a darkened region, by the partial 
rarefaction of the intervening medium, is expressed by the word " be." 
This may denote that which already existed, but not in that place. 
On the second day (v. 6, 7) a new disposition of the air and the water 
is described by the verbs " be " and " make." These indicate a modi- 
fication of that which already existed. On the third day (v. 9, 11) no 
verb is directly applied to the act of divine power. This agency is 
thus understood, while the natural changes following are expressly 
noticed. In the fourth (v. 14, 16, 17) the words "be," "make," and 
" give " occur, where the matter in hand is the manifestation of the 
heavenly bodies and their adaptation to the use of man. In these 
cases it is evident that the word " create " would have been only im- 



60 THE SIXTH DAY. 

properly or indirectly applicable to the action of the Eternal Being. 
Here it is employed with propriety ; as the animal world is something 
new and distinct summoned into existence. It is manifest from this re- 
view that variety of expression has resulted from attention to propriety. 

Great fishes. Monstrous crawlers that wriggle through the water 
or scud along the banks. Every living, breathing thing that creeps. 
The smaller animals of the water and its banks. Bird of wing. Here 
the wing is made characteristic of the class, which extends beyond what 
we call birds. The Maker inspects and approves his work. 

22. Blessed them. We are brought into a new sphere of creation on 
this day, and we meet with a new act of the Almighty. To bless is to 
wish, and, in the case of God, to will some good to the object of the 
blessing. The blessing here pronounced upon the fish and the fowl is 
that of abundant increase. Bear. This refers to the propagation of 
the species. Multiply. This notifies the abundance of the offspring. 
Fill the waters. Let them be fully stocked. In the seas. The sea 
of Scripture includes the lake, and, by parity of reason, the rivers, 
which are the feeders of both. This blessing seems to indicate that, 
whereas in the case of some plants many individuals of the same 
species were simultaneously created, so as to produce a universal cov- 
ering of verdure for the land and an abundant supply of aliment for 
the animals about to be created, — in regard to these animals a single 
pair only, at all events of the larger kinds, was at first called into be- 
ing, from which, by the potent blessing of the Creator, was propagated 
the multitude by which the waters and the air were peopled. 

VIII. THE SIXTH DAY. — Gen. i. 24-31. 

24. iT£f"Q cattle, dumb, tame beasts. » 

to^an creeping, small or low animals. 

fi^n living thing, animal. 

pntttpWi wild beast. 
26. trti* man, mankind ; r. be red. A collective noun, having no 
plural number, and therefore denoting either an individual of the kind, 
or the kind or race itself. It is connected in etymology with S"ra'i» the 
red soil, from which the human body was formed (Gen. ii. 7). It 
therefore marks the earthly aspect of man. 

Db^ shade, image, in visible outline. 

Mxft likeness, in any quality. 

mi tread, rule. 



GEN. I. 24-31. 61 

24. Then said God, Let the land bring forth living breath- 
ing thing after its kind, cattle, and creeper, and beast of the 
land after its kind : and it was so. 25. Then made God the 
beast of the land after its kind, and the cattle after their kind, 
and ever}' creeper of the soil after its kind : then saw God that 
it was good. 

26. Then said God, Let us make man in our image after 
our likeness : and let them rule over the fish of the sea, and 
over the fowl of the skies, and over the cattle, and over all the 
land, and over every creeper that creepeth upon the land. 
27. Then created God the man in his image : in the image of 
God created he him : male and female created he them. 28. 
Then blessed them God, and said unto them God, Be fruitful, 
and multiply, and fill the land, and subdue it ; and rule over 
the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the skies, and over 
every living thing that creepeth upon the land. 29. Then 
said God, Lo, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which 
is upon the face of all the land, and every tree, in which is the 
fruit of a tree yielding seed : to you shall it be for food. 30. 
And to every beast of the land, and to every fowl of the skies, 
and to every thing that creepeth upon the land, wherein is 
living breath, every green herb for food : and it was so. 31. 
Then saw God everything that he had made, and lo, it was 
very good. Then was evening, then was morning, day the 
sixth. IF 6. 



This day corresponds with the third. In both the land is the sphere 
of operation. In both are performed two acts of creative power. In 
the third the land was clothed with vegetation : in the sixth it is peo- 
pled with the animal kingdom. First, the lower animals are called 
into being, and then, to crown all, man. 

24, 25. This branch of the animal world is divided into three 
parts. " Living breathing thing " is the general head under which all 
these are comprised. " Cattle " denotes the animals that dwell with 
man, especially those that bear burdens. The same term in the orig- 
inal, when there is no contrast, when in the plural number or with the 



62 THE SIXTH DAY. 

specification of " the land," the " field," is used of wild beasts. " Creep- 
ing things " evidently denote the smaller animals, from which the cattle 
are distinguished as the large. The quality of creeping is, however, 
applied sometimes to denote the motion of the lower animals with the 
body in a prostrate posture, in opposition to the erect posture of man 
(Ps. civ. 20). The " beast of the land " or the field signifies the wild 
rapacious animal that lives apart from man. The word n^n beast 
or animal, is the general term employed in these verses for the 
whole animal kind. It signifies wild animal with certainty only when 
it is accompanied by the qualifying term " land " or " field," or the 
epithet " evil " (<~t:n). From this division it appears that animals that 
prey on others were included in this -latest creation. This is an ex- 
tension of that law by which the organic living substances of the vege- 
table kingdom form the sustenance of the animal species. 25. The 
execution of the divine mandate is then recorded, and the result in- 
spected and approved. 

26, 27. Here we evidently enter upon a higher scale of being. 
This is indicated by the counsel or common resolve to create, which is 
now for the first time introduced into the narrative. When the Crea- 
tor says, " Let us make man," he calls attention to the work as one of 
preeminent importance. At the same time he sets it before him- 
self as a thing undertaken with deliberate purpose. Moreover, in 
the former mandates of creation his words had regard to the thing 
itself that was summoned into being ; as, " Let there be light ; " or to 
some preexistent object that was physically connected with the new 
creature ; as, " Let the land bring forth grass." But now the language 
of the fiat of creation ascends to the Creator himself: Let us make 
man. This intimates that the new being in its higher nature is as- 
sociated not so much with any part of creation as with the Eternal 
Uncreated himself. 

The plural form of the sentence raises the question, With whom 
took he counsel on this occasion ? Was it with himself, and does he 
here simply use the plural of majesty ? Such was not the usual style 
of monarchs in the ancient East. Pharaoh says, "I have dreamed a 
dream" (Gen. xli. 15). Nebuchadnezzar, "/have dreamed" (Dan. 
ii. 3). Darius the Mede, " I make a decree " (Dan. vi. 26). Cyrus, 
" The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the 
earth " (Ezra i. 2). Darius, " / make a decree" (Ezra vi. 8). We 
have no ground, therefore, for transferring it to the style of the hea- 
venly King. Was it with certain other intelligent beings in existence 



GEN. I. 24-31. 63 

before man that he took counsel ? This supposition cannot be admit- 
ted ; because the expression " let us make " is an invitation to create, 
which is an incommunicable attribute of the Eternal One, and because 
the phrases, " our image, our likeness," when transferred into the third 
person of narrative, become " his image, the image of God" and thus 
limit the pronouns to God himself. Does the plurality, then, point to 
a plurality of attributes in the divine nature ? This cannot be, because 
a plurality of qualities exists in everything, without at all leading to the 
application of the plural number to the individual, and because such a 
plurality does not warrant the expression, "let us make." Only a 
plurality of persons can justify the phrase. Hence we are forced to 
conclude that the plural pronoun indicates a plurality of persons or 
hypostases in the Divine Being. (See p. 27.) 

26. Man. Man is a new species, essentially different from all 
other kinds on earth. In our image, after our likeness. He is to be 
allied to heaven as no other creature on earth is. He is to be related 
to the Eternal Being himself. This relation, however, is to be not in 
matter, but in form ; not in essence, but in semblance. This precludes 
all pantheistic notions of the origin of man. " Image " is a word taken 
from sensible things, and denotes likeness in outward form, while the 
material may be different. " Likeness " is a more general term, indi- 
cating resemblance in any quality, external or internal. It is here 
explanatory of image, and seems to show that this term is to be taken 
in a figurative sense, to denote not a material but a spiritual conformity 
to God. The Eternal Being is essentially self-manifesting. The 
appearance he presents to an eye fitted to contemplate him is his 
image. The union of attributes which constitute his spiritual nature 
is his character or likeness. 

We gather from the present chapter that God is a spirit (Gen. i. 2), 
that he thinks, speaks, wills, and acts (Gen. i. 3, 4, etc.). Here, then, are 
the great points of conformity to God in man, namely, reason, speech ? 
will, and power. By reason we apprehend concrete things in perception 
and consciousness, and cognize abstract truth, both metaphysical and 
moral. By speech we make certain easy and sensible acts of our own 
the signs of the various objects of our contemplative faculties to our- 
selves and others. By will we choose, determine, and resolve upon 
what is to be done. By power we act, either in giving expression to 
our concepts in words, or effect to our determinations in deeds. In 
the reason is evolved the distinction of good and evil (Gen. i. 4, 31), 
which is in itself the approval of the former and the disapproval of the 



64 THE SIXTH DAY. 

latter. In the will is unfolded that freedom of action which chooses 
the good and refuses the evil. In the spiritual being that exercises 
reason and will resides the power to act, which presupposes both these 
faculties, — the reason as informing the will, and the will as directing 
the power. This is that form of God in which he has created man, 
and condescends to communicate with him. 

And let them rule. The relation of man to the creature is now 
stated. It is that of sovereignty. Those capacities of right thinking, 
right willing, and right acting, or of knowledge, holiness, and righteous- 
ness, in which man resembles God, qualify him for dominion, and 
constitute him lord of all creatures that are destitute of intellectual 
and moral endowments. Hence, wherever man enters he makes his 
sway to be felt. He contemplates the objects around him, marks their 
qualities and relations, conceives and resolves upon the end to be 
attained, and endeavors to make all things within his reach work 
together for its accomplishment. This is to rule on a limited scale. 
The field of his dominion is " the fish of the sea, the fowl of the skies, 
the cattle, the whole land, and every thing that creepeth on the land." 
The order here is from the lowest to the highest. The fish, the fowl, 
are beneath the domestic cattle. These again are of less importance 
than the land, which man tills and renders fruitful in all that can grat- 
ify his appetite or his taste. The last and greatest victory of all is 
over the wild animals, which are included under the class of creepers 
that are prone in their posture, and move in a creeping attitude over 
the land. The primeval and prominent objects of human sway are 
here brought forward after the manner of Scripture. But there is not 
an object within the ken of man which he does not aim at making sub- 
servient to his purposes. He has made the sea his highway to the 
ends of the earth, the stars his pilots on the pathless ocean, the sun 
his bleacher and painter, the bowels of the earth the treasury from 
which he draws his precious and useful metals and much of his fuel, 
the steam his motive power, and the lightning his messenger. These 
are proofs of the evergrowing sway of man. 

27. Created. Man in his essential part, the image of God in 
him, was entirely a new creation. We discern here two stages in 
his creation. The general fact is stated in the first clause of the 
verse, and then the two particulars. " In the image of God created 
he him." This is the primary act, in which his relation to his 
Maker is made prominent. In this his original state he is actually one, 
as God in whose image he is made is one. " Male and female created he 



GEN. I. 24-31. 65 

them." This is the second act or step in his formation. He is now no 
longer one, but two, — the male and the female. His adaptation to be 
the head of a race is hereby completed. This second stage in the ex- 
istence of man is more circumstantially described hereafter (Gen. ii. 
21-25). 

28. The divine blessing is now pronounced upon man. It dif- 
fers from that of the lower animals chiefly in the element of suprem- 
acy. Power is presumed to belong to man's nature, according to the 
counsel of the Maker's will (v. 26). But without a special permission 
he cannot exercise any lawful authority. For the other creatures are 
as independent of him as he is of them. As creatures he and they are 
on an equal footing, and have no natural right either over the other. 
Hence it is necessary that he should receive from high heaven a formal 
charter of right over the things that were made for man. He is there- 
fore authorized, by the word of the Creator, to exercise his power in 
subduing the earth and ruling over the animal kingdom. This is the 
meet sequel of his being created in the image of God. Being formed 
for dominion, the earth and its various products and inhabitants are 
assigned to him for the display of his powers. The subduing and 
ruling refer not to the mere supply of his natural wants, for which 
provision is made in the following verse, but to the accomplishment of 
his various purposes of science and beneficence, whether towards the 
inferior animals or his own race. It is the part of intellectual and 
moral reason to employ power for the ends of general no less than per- 
sonal good. The sway of man ought to be beneficent. 

29, 30. Every herb bearing seed and tree bearing fruit is granted 
to man for his sustenance. With our habits it may seem a matter of 
course that each should at once appropriate that which he needs of 
things at his hand. But in the beginning of existence it could not be 
so. Of two things proceeding from the same creative hand neither 
has any original or inherent right to interfere in any way whatever 
with the other. The absolute right to each lies in the Creator alone. 
The one, it is 'true, may need the other to support its life, as fruit is 
needful to man. And therefore the just Creator cannot make one 
creature dependent for subsistence on another without granting to it 
the use of that other. But this is a matter between Creator and crea- 
ture, not by any means between creature and creature. Hence it was 
necessary to the rightful adjustment of things, whenever a rational 
creature was ushered into the world, that the Creator should give an 
express permission to that creature to partake of the fruits of the 

9 



66 THE SIXTH DAY. 

earth. And in harmony with this view we shall hereafter find an ex- 
ception made to this general grant (Gen. ii. 17). Thus, we perceive, 
the necessity of this formal grant of the use of certain creatures to 
moral and responsible man lies deep in the nature of things. And 
the sacred writer here hands down to us from the mists of a hoary an- 
tiquity the primitive deed of conveyance, which lies at the foundation 
of the the common property of man in the earth, and all that it contains. 
The whole vegetable world is assigned to the animals for food. In 
the terms of the original grant the herb bearing seed and the tree 
bearing fruit are especially allotted to man, because the grain and the 
fruit were edible by man without much preparation. As usual in 
Scripture the chief parts are put for the whole, and accordingly this 
specification of the ordinary and the obvious covers the general princi- 
ple that whatever part of the vegetable kingdom is convertible into 
food by the ingenuity of man is free for his use. It is plain that a 
vegetable diet alone is expressly conceded to man in this original con- 
veyance, and it is probable that this alone was designed for him in the 
state in which he was created. But we must bear in mind that he 
was constituted master of the animal as well as of the vegetable world ; 
and we cannot positively affirm that his dominion did not involve the 
use of them for food. 

30. The whole of the grasses and the green parts or leaves of 
the herbage are distributed among the inferior animals for food. Here, 
again, the common and prominent kind of sustenance only is specified. 
There are some animals that greedily devour the fruits of trees and 
the grain produced by the various herbs ; and there are others that 
derive the most of their subsistence from preying on the smaller and 
weaker kinds of animals. Still, the main substance Of the means of 
animal life, and the ultimate supply of the whole of it, are derived 
from the plant. Even this general statement is not to be received 
without exception, as there are certain lower descriptions of animals that 
derive sustenance even from the mineral world. But this brief narra- 
tive of things notes only the few palpable facts, leaving the details to 
the experience and judgment of the reader. 

31. Here we have the general review and approval of everything 
God had made, at the close of the six days' work of creation. Man, as 
well as other things, was very good when he came from his Maker's 
hand ; but good as yet untried, and therefore good in capacity rather 
than in victory over temptation. It remains yet to be seen whether 
he will be good in act and habit. 



GEN. I. 24-31. 67 

This completes, then, the restoration of that order and fulness the 
absence of which is described in the second verse. The account of 
the six days' work, therefore, is the counterpart of that verse. The 
six days fall into two threes, corresponding to each other in the course 
of events. The first and fourth days refer principally to the darkness 
on the face of the deep ; the second and fifth to the disorder and emp- 
tiness of the aerial and aqueous elements ; and the third and sixth to 
the similar condition of the land. Again, the first three days refer to 
a lower, the second three to a higher order of things. On the first the 
darkness on the face of the earth is removed ; on the fourth that on 
the face of the sky. On the second the water is distributed above and 
below the expanse ; on the fifth the living natives of these regions are 
called into being. On the third the plants rooted in the soil are made ; 
on the sixth the animals that move freely over it are brought into 
existence. 

This chapter shows the folly and sin of the worship of light, of sun, 
moon, or star, of air or water, of plant, of fish or fowl, of earth, of 
cattle, creeping thing or wild beast, or, finally, of man himself ; as all 
these are but the creatures of the one Eternal Spirit, who, as the 
Creator of all, is alone to be worshipped by his intelligent creatures. 

This chapter is also to be read with wonder and adoration by man ; 
as he finds himself to be constituted lord of the earth, next in rank 
under the Creator of all, formed in the image of his Maker, and there- 
fore capable not only of studying the works of nature, but of contem- 
plating and reverently communing with the Author of nature. 

In closing the interpretation of this chapter, it is proper to refer to 
certain first principles of hermeneutical science. First, that interpre- 
tation only is valid which is true to the meaning of the author. The 
very first rule on which the interpreter is bound to proceed is to assign 
to each word the meaning it commonly bore in the time of the writer. 
This is the prime key to the works of every ancient author, if we can 
only discover it. The next is to give a consistent meaning to the 
whole of that which was composed at one time or in one place by the 
author. The presumption is that there was a reasonable consistency 
of thought in his mind during one effort of composition. A third rule 
is to employ faithfully and discreetly whatever we can learn concerning 
the time, place, and other circumstances of the author to the elucida- 
tion of his meaning. 

And, in the second place, the interpretation now given claims accept- 
ance on the ground of its internal and external consistency with truth. 



68 THE SIXTH DAY. 

1st. It exhibits the consistency of the whole narrative in itself. It 
acknowledges the narrative character of the first verse. It assigns an 
essential significance to the words, " the heavens," in that verse. It 
attributes to the second verse a prominent place and function in the 
arrangement of the record. It places the special creative work of the 
six days in due subordination to the absolute creation recorded in the 
first verse. It gathers information from the primitive meanings of the 
names that are given to certain objects, and notices the subsequent 
development of these meanings. It accounts for the manifestation of 
light on the first day, and of the luminaries of heaven on the fourth, 
and traces the orderly steps of a majestic climax throughout the nar- 
rative. It is in harmony with the usage of speech as far as it can be 
known to us at the present day. It assigns to the words " heavens," 
" earth," " expanse," " day," no greater latitude of meaning than was 
then customary. It allows for the diversity of phraseology employed 
in describing the acts of creative power. It sedulously refrains from 
importing modern notions into the narrative. 

2d. The narrative thus interpreted is in striking harmony with the 
dictates of reason and the axioms of philosophy concerning the essence 
of God and the nature of man. On this it is unnecessary to dwell. 

3d. It is equally consistent with human science. It substantially 
accords with the present state of astronomical science. It recognizes, 
as far as can be expected, the relative importance of the heavens and 
the earth, the existence of the heavenly bodies from the beginning of 
time, the total and then the partial absence of light from the face of the 
deep, as the local result of physical causes. It allows, also, if it were 
necessary, between the original creation, recorded in the first verse, 
and the state of things described in the second, the interval of time 
required for the light of the most distant discoverable star to reach the 
earth. No such interval, however, could be absolutely necessary, as 
the Creator could as easily establish the luminous connection of the 
different orbs of heaven as summon into being the element of light 
itself. 

4th. It is also in harmony with the elementary facts of geological 
knowledge. The land, as understood by the ancient author, may be 
limited to that portion of the earth's surface which was known to ante- 
diluvian man. The elevation of an extensive tract of land, the subsi- 
dence of the overlying waters into the comparative hollows, the clari- 
fying of the atmosphere, the creation of a fresh supply of plants and 
animals on the newly-formed continent, compose a series of changes 



GEN. II. 1-3. 69 

which meet the geologist again and again in prosecuting his researches 
into the bowels of the earth. What part of the land was submerged 
when the new soil emerged from the waters, how far the shock of the 
plutonic or volcanic forces maj have been felt, whether the alteration 
of level extended to the whole solid crust of the earth, or only to a 
certain region surrounding the cradle of mankind, the record before us 
does not determine. It merely describes in a few graphic touches, that 
are strikingly true to nature, the last of those geologic changes which 
our globe has undergone. 

5th. It is in keeping, as far as it goes, with the facts of botany, zo- 
ology, and ethnology. 

6th. It agrees with the cosmogonies of all nations, so far as these 
are founded upon a genuine tradition and not upon the mere conjec- 
tures of a lively fancy. 

Finally, it has the singular and superlative merit of drawing the 
diurnal scenes of that creation to which our race owes its origin in the 
simple language of common life, and presenting each transcendent 
change as it would appear to an ordinary spectator standing on the 
earth. It was thus sufficiently intelligible to primeval man, and remains 
to this day intelligible to us, as soon as we divest ourselves of the nar- 
rowing preconceptions of our modern civilization. 



IX. THE SEVENTH DAY. — Gen. ii. 1-3. 

1. K22 a host in marching order, a company of persons or things in 
the order of their nature and the progressive discharge of their func- 
tions. Hence it is applied to the starry host (Deut. iv. 19), to the 
angelic host (1 Kings xxii. 19), to the host of Israel (Exod. xii. 41), 
and to the ministering Levites (Num. iv. 23). koct/xos. 

2. 'tt'Cisn . Here ^dij is read by Sam., LXX., Syr., and Josephus. 
The Masoretic reading, however, is preferable, as the sixth day was 
completed in the preceding paragraph : to finish a work on the seventh 
day is, in Hebrew phrase, not to do any part of it on that day, but to 
cease from it as a thing already finished ; and " resting," in the subse- 
quent part of the verse, is distinct from " finishing," being the positive 
of which the latter is the negative. 

md rest. 2&i sit. 

- T -T 

3. unjs be separate, clean, holy, set apart for a sacred use. 



70 THE SEVENTH DAY. 

II. 1. Then were finished the heavens and the earth and 
all the host of them. 2. Then finished God on the seventh 
day his work which he had made ; and rested on the seventh 
day from all his work which he had made. 3. Then blessed 
God the seventh day and hallowed it ; because in it he had 
rested from all his work, which created had God to make. IT 7. 

In this section we have the institution of the day of rest, the Sab- 
bath (na^), on the cessation of God from his creative activity. 

1. And all the host of them. All the array of luminaries, plants, and 
animals by which the darkness, waste, and solitude of sky and land 
were removed, has now been called into unhindered action or new ex- 
istence. The whole is now finished ; that is, perfectly fitted at length 
for the convenience of man, the high-born inhabitant of this fair scene. 
Since the absolute beginning of things the earth may have undergone 
many changes of climate and surface before it was adapted for the res- 
idence of man. But it has received the finishing touch in these last 
six days. These days accordingly are to man the only period of crea- 
tion, since the beginning of time, of special or personal interest. The 
preceding interval of progressive development and periodical creation 
is, in regard to him, condensed into a point of time. The creative work 
of the six days is accordingly called the " making," or fitting up for 
man of " the skies and the land and the sea, and all that in them is " 
(Exod. xx. (11) 10). 

2. Then finished. To finish a work, in Hebrew conception, is to 
cease from it, to have done with it. On the seventh day. The seventh 
day is distinguished from all the preceding days by being itself the 
subject of the narrative. In the absence of any work on this day, the 
Eternal is occupied with the day itself, and does four things in refer- 
ence to it. First, he ceased from his work which he had made. Sec- 
ondly, he rested. By this was indicated that his undertaking was 
accomplished. When nothing more remains to be done, the purposing 
agent rests contented. The resting of God arises not from weariness, 
but from the completion of his task. He is refreshed, not by the re- 
cruiting of his strength, but by the satisfaction of having before him a 
finished good (Exod. xxxi. 17). 

3. Thirdly, he blessed the seventh day. Blessing results in the 
bestowment of some good on the object blessed. The only good that 
can be bestowed on a portion of time is to dedicate it to a noble use, 



GEK II. 1-3. 71 

a peculiar and pleasing enjoyment. Accordingly, in the fourth place, 
lie hallowed it or set it apart to a holy rest. This consecration is the 
blessing conferred on the seventh day. It is devoted to the rest that 
followed, when God's work was done, to the satisfaction and delight 
arising from the consciousness of having achieved his end, and from 
the contemplation of the good he has realized. Our joy on such occa- 
sions is expressed by mutual visitation, congratulation, and hospitality. 
None of these outward demonstrations is mentioned here, and would 
be, so far as the Supreme Being is concerned, altogether out of place. 
But our celebration of the Sabbath naturally includes the holy convo- 
cation or solemn meeting together in joyful mood (Lev. xxiii. 3), the 
singing of songs of thanksgiving in commemoration of our existence 
and our salvation (Exod. xx. 11 (10) ; Deut. v. 15), the opening of 
our mouths to God in prayer, and the opening of God's mouth to us 
in the reading and preaching of the Word. The sacred rest which 
characterizes the day precludes the labor and bustle of hospitable enter- 
tainment. But the Lord at set times spreads for us his table laden 
with the touching emblems of that spiritual fare which gives eternal 
life. 

The solemn act of blessing and hallowing is the institution of a per- 
petual order of seventh-day rest : in the same manner as the blessing 
of the animals denoted a perpetuity of self-multiplication, and the 
blessing of man indicated further a perpetuity of dominion over the 
earth and its products. The present record is a sufficient proof that 
the original institution was never forgotten by man. If it had ceased 
to be observed by mankind, the intervening event of the fall would 
have been sufficient to account for its discontinuance. It is not, in- 
deed, the manner of Scripture, especially in a record that often deals 
with centuries of time, to note the ordinary recurrence of a seventh-day 
rest, or any other periodical festival, even though it may have taken 
firm hold among the hereditary customs of social life. Yet incidental 
traces of the keeping of the Sabbath are found in the record of the 
deluge, when the sacred writer has occasion to notice short intervals 
of time. The measurement of time by weeks then appears ( Gen. viii. 
10, 12). The same division of time again comes up in the history of 
Jacob (Gen. xxix. 27, 28). This unit of measure is traceable to 
nothing but the institution of the seventh-day rest. 

This institution is a new evidence that we have arrived at the stage 
of rational creatures. The number of days employed in the work of 
creation shows that we are come to the times of man. The distinction 



72 THE SEVENTH DAY. 

of times would have no meaning to the irrational world. But apart 
from this consideration, the seventh-day rest is not an ordinance of 
nature. It makes no mark in the succession of physical things. It has 
no palpable effect on the merely animal world. The sun rises, the 
moon and the s'tars pursue their course ; the plants grow, the flowers 
blow, the fruit ripens ; the brute animal seeks its food and provides for 
its young on this as on other days. The Sabbath, therefore, is founded, 
not in nature, but in history. Its periodical return is marked by the 
numeration of seven days. It appeals not to instinct, but to memory, 
to intelligence. A reason is assigned for its observance ; and this 
itself is a step above mere sense, an indication that the era of man has 
begun. The reason is thus expressed : " Because in it he had rested 
from all his work." This reason is found in the procedure of God ; 
and God himself, as well as all his ways, man alone is competent in 
any measure to apprehend. 

It is consonant with our ideas of the wisdom and righteousness of 
God to believe that the seventh-day rest is adjusted to the physical 
nature of man and of the animals which he domesticates as beasts of 
labor. But this is subordinate to its original end, the commemoration 
of the completion of God's creative work by a sacred rest, which has a 
direct bearing, as we learn from the record of its institution, on meta- 
physical and moral distinctions. 

The rest here, it is to be remembered, is God's rest. The refresh- 
ment is God's refreshment, which arises rather from the joy of achieve- 
ment than from the relief of fatigue. Yet the work in which God was 
engaged was the creation of man and the previous adaptation of the 
world to be his home. Man's rest, therefore, on this day is not only 
an act of communion with God in the satisfaction of resting after his 
work was done, but, at the same time, a thankful commemoration of 
that auspicious event in which the Almighty gave a noble origin and a 
happy existence to the human race. It is this which, even apart from 
its divine institution, at once raises the Sabbath above all human com- 
memorative festivals, and imparts to it, to its joys and to its modes of 
expressing them, a height of sacredness and a force of obligation which 
cannot belong to any mere human arrangement. 

In order to enter upon the observance of this day with intelligence, 
therefore, it was necessary that the human pair should have been 
acquainted with the events recorded in the preceding chapter. They 
must have been informed of the original creation of all things, and 
therefore of the eternal existence of the Creator. They must further 



GEN. II. 1-3. 73 

have been instructed in the order and purpose of the six days' crea- 
tion, by which the land and sky were fitted up for the residence of 
man. They must in consequence have learned that they themselves 
were created in the image of God, and intended to have dominion over 
all the animal world. This information would fill their pure and in- 
fantile minds with thoughts of wonder, gratitude, and complacential 
delight, and prepare them for entering upon the celebration of the 
seventh-day rest with the understanding and the heart. It is scarcely 
needful to add that this was the first full day of the newly-created pair 
in their terrestrial home. This would add a new historical interest to 
this day above all others. We cannot say how much time it would 
take to make the parents of our race aware of the meaning of all these 
wondrous events. But there can be no reasonable doubt that he who 
made them in his image could convey into their minds such simple and 
elementary conceptions of the origin of themselves and the creatures 
around them as would enable them to keep even the first Sabbath 
with propriety. And these conceptions would rise into more enlarged, 
distinct, and adequate notions of the reality of things along with the 
general development of their mental faculties. This implies, we per- 
ceive, an oral revelation to the very first man. But it is premature to 
pursue this matter any further at present. 

The recital of the resting of God on this day is not closed with the 
usual formula, "and evening was, and morning was, day seventh." 
The reason of this is obvious. In the former days the occupation of 
the Eternal Being was definitely concluded in the period of the one 
day. On the seventh day, however, the rest of the Creator was only 
commenced, has thence continued to the present hour, and will not be 
fully completed till the human race has run out its course. When the 
last man has been born and has arrived at the crisis of his destiny, 
then may we expect a new creation, another putting forth of the di- 
vine energy, to prepare the skies above and the earth beneath for a 
new stage of man's history, in which he will appear as a race no longer 
in process of development, but completed in number, confirmed in 
moral character, transformed in physical constitution, and so adapted 
for a new scene of existence. Meanwhile, the interval between the 
creation now recorded and that prognosticated in subsequent revela- 
tions from heaven (Is. lxv. 17 ; 2 Pet. iii. 13 ; Rev. xxi. 1) is the 
long Sabbath of the Almighty, so far as this world is concerned, in 
which he serenely contemplates from the throne of his providence the 
strange workings and strivings of that intellectual and moral race he 



74 THE SEVENTH DAY. 

lias called into being, the ebbings and Sowings of ethical and physical 
good in their checkered history, and the final destiny to which. each 
individual in the unfettered exercise of his moral freedom is incessantly 
advancing. 

Hence we gather some important lessons concerning the primeval 
design of the Sabbath. It was intended, not for God himself, whose 
Sabbath does not end till the consummation of all things, but for man, 
whose origin it commemorates and whose end it foreshadows (Mark 
ii. 27). It not obscurely hints that work is to be the main business of 
man in the present stage of his existence. This work may be either 
an exhilerating exercise of those mental and corporeal faculties with 
which he is endowed, or a toilsome labor, a constant struggle for the 
means of life, according to the use he may make of his inborn lib- 
erty. 

But between the sixfold periods of work is interposed the day of rest, 
a free breathing time for man, in which he may recall his origin from 
and meditate on his relationship to God. It lifts him out of the 
routine of mechanical or even intellectual labor into the sphere of 
conscious leisure and occasional participation with his Maker in his 
perpetual rest. It is also a type of something higher. It whispers 
into his soul an audible presentiment of a time when his probationary 
career will be over, his faculties will be matured by the experience 
and the education of time, and he will be transformed and translated 
to a higher stage of being, where he will hold uninterrupted fellowship 
with his Creator in the perpetual leisure and liberty of the children 
of God. This paragraph completes the first of the eleven documents 
into which Genesis is separable, and the first grand stage in the nar- 
rative of the ways of God with man. It is the keystone of the arch 
in the history of that primeval creation to which we belong. The 
document which it closes is distinguished from those that succeed in 
several important respects : 

First, it is a diary ; while the others are usually arranged in gen- 
erations or life-periods. 

Secondly, it is a complete drama, consisting of seven acts with a pro- 
logue. These seven stages contain two triads of action, which match 
each other in all respects, and a seventh constituting a sort of epilogue 
or completion of the whole. 

Though the Scripture takes no notice of any significance or sacred- 
ness inherent in particular numbers, yet we cannot avoid associating 
them with the objects to which they are prominently applied. The 



GEN. II. 1-3. 75 

number one is peculiarly applicable to the unity of God. Two, the 
number of repetition, is expressive of emphasis or confirmation, as the 
two witnesses. Three marks the three persons or hypostases in God. 
Four notes the foUr quarters of the world, and therefore reminds us of 
the physical system of things, or the cosmos. Five is the half of ten. 
the whole, and the basis of our decimal numeration. Seven, being 
composed of twice three and one, is peculiarly fitted for sacred uses ; 
being the sum of three and four, it points to the communion of God 
with man. It is, therefore, the number of sacred fellowship. Twelve 
is the product of three and four, and points to the reconciliation of God 
and man: it is therefore the number of the church. Twenty -two 
and eleven, being the whole and the half of the Hebrew alphabet, have 
somewhat the same relation as ten and five. Twenty-four points to 
the New Testament, or completed church. 

The other documents do not exhibit the sevenfold structure, though 
they display the same general laws of composition. They are ar- 
ranged according to a plan of their own, and are all remarkable for 
their simplicity, order, and perspicuity. 

Thirdly, the matter of the first differs from that of the others. 
The first is a record of creation ; the others of development. This is 
sufficient to account for the diversity of style and plan. Each piece is 
admirably adapted to the topic of which it treats. 

Fourthly, the first document is distinguished from the second by 
the use of the term dijr^&t only for the Supreme Being. This name is 
here appropriate, as the Everlasting One (p.26)here steps forth from 
the inscrutable secrecy of his immutable perfection to crown the latest 
stage of our planet's history with a new creation adapted to its present 
conditions. Before all creation he was the Everduring, the Un- 
changeable, and therefore the blessed and only Potentate, dwelling 
with himself in the unapproachable light of his own essential glory 
(1 Tim. vi. 15). From that ineffable source of all being came forth 
the free fiat of creation. After that transcendent event, He who was 
from everlasting to everlasting may receive new names expressive of 
the various relations in which he stands to the universe of created 
being. But before this relation was established these names could 
have no existence or significance. 

Neither this last nor any of the former distinctions affords any argu- 
ment for diversity of authorship. They arise naturally out of the diver- 
sity of matter, and are such as may proceed from an intelligent author 



76 THE SEVENTH DAY. 

judiciously adapting his style and plan to the variety of his topics. At 
the same time, identity of authorship is not essential to the historical 
validity or the divine authority of the elementary parts that are incor- 
porated by Moses into the book of Genesis. It is only unnecessary to 
multiply authorship without a cause. 



PAET II. 



THE DEVELOPMENT, 



SECTION II. — THE MAN. 
X. THE FIELD. — Gen. ii. 4-7. 

4. rvftViia generations, products, developments. That which comes 
from any source, as the child from the parent, the record of which is 
history. 

S-n'rp This word occurs about six thousand times in Scripture. It 
is obvious from its use that it is, so to speak, the proper name of God. 
It never has the article. It is never changed for construction with 
another noun. It is never accompanied with a suffix. It is never ap- 
plied to any but the true God. This sacred exclusiveness of applica- 
tion, indeed, led the Jews to read always in place of it 'WK, or, if this 
preceded it, Q^J* , to intimate which the vowel points of one of these 
terms were subscribed to it. The root of this name is niti , an older 
variety of rnrt , which, as we have seen (p. 25), has three meanings, — 
be in the sense of coming into existence, be in that of becoming, and 
be in that of merely existing. The first of these meanings has no 
application to God, who had no beginning of existence. The last 
applies to God, but affords no distinctive characteristic, as it belongs 
equally to all objects that have existence. The second is proper to 
God in the sense, not of acquiring any new attribute, but of becoming 
active from a state of repose. But he becomes active to the eye of 
man only by causing some new effect to be, which makes its ap- 
pearance in the world of sensible things. He becomes, then, only 
by causing to be or to become. Hence he that becomes, when applied 
to the Creator, is really he that causes to be. This name, therefore, 
involves the active or causative force of the root from which it springs, 
and designates God in relation with the system of things he has called 



78 THE FIELD. 

into being, and especially with man, the only intelligent observer of 
him or of his works in this nether world. It distinguishes him as the 
Author of being, and therefore the Creator, the worker of miracles, 
the performer of promise, the keeper of covenant. Beginning with 
the *> of personality, it points out God as the person whose habitual 
character it has become to cause his purpose to take place. Hence D^rftK 
designates God as the Everlasting, the Almighty, in his unchangeable 
essence, as he is before as well as after creation, JTjm distinguishes 
him as the personal Self-existent, and Author of all existing things, 
who gives expression and effect to his purpose, manifests himself thereby 
as existing, and maintains a spiritual intercourse with his intelligent 
creatures. 

The vowel marks usually placed under the consonants of this word 
are said to belong to ipK ; and its real pronunciation, which is sup- 
posed to be lost, is conjectured to have been ^n\ This conjecture is 
supported by the analogy of the supposed antique third singular mas- 
culine imperfect of the verb i"rtfi, and by the Greek forms IAO and 
IABE which are found in certain authors (Diod. Sic. i. 19 ; Macrob. 
Saturn i. 18 ; Theodoret, Quaest. xv. ad Exod.). It is true, indeed, 
when it has a prefix all its vowels coincide with those of i|?wj . But 
otherwise the vowel under the first letter is different, and the qamets 
at the end is as usual in proper names ending in In as in others. ttjT* 
also finds an anology in the word drf-P . In the forms IAO and IABE 
the Greek vowels doubtless represent the Hebrew consonants, and not 
any vowel points, n is often represented by the Greek a. From 
ftl'rn we may obtain OT? at the end of compounds, and therefore, expect 
W at the beginning. But the form at the beginning is ifp or i* 1 , 
which indicates the pronunciation iiir^ as current with the punctuators. 
All this countenances the suggestion that the casual agreement of the 
two nouns Jehovah and Adonai in the principal vowels was the circum- 
stance that facilitated the Jewish endeavor to avoid uttering the proper 
name of God except on the most solemn occasions. ft)»T!» moreover, 
rests on precarious grounds. The Hebrew analogy would give rty?j 
not JY)!"£ for the verbal form. The middle vowel cholem may indicate 
the intensive or active force of the root, but we lay no stress on the 
mode of pronunciation, as it cannot be positively ascertained. 

5. i-nb plain, country, field, for pasture or tillage, in opp. to "ja, gar- 
den, park. 

7. i"raiz5p breath, applied to God and man only. 

We meet with no division again in the text till we come to Gen. iii. 



GEN. II. 4-7. TO 

15, when the first minor break in the narrative occurs. This is noted 
by the intervening space being less than the remainder of the line. 
The narrative is therefore so far regarded as continuous. 

We are now entering upon a new plan of narrative, and have there- 
fore to notice particularly that law of Hebrew composition by which 
one line of events is carried on without interruption to its natural rest- 
ing-point ; after which the writer returns to take up a collateral train 
of incidents, that are equally requisite for the elucidation of his main 
purpose, though their insertion in the order of time would have marred 
the symmetry and perspicuity of the previous narrative. The relation 
now about to be given is posterior, as a whole, to that already given 
as a whole ; but the first incident now to be recorded is some time 
prior to the last of the preceding document. 

Hitherto we have adhered closely to the form of the original in our 
rendering, and so have made use of some inversions which are foreign 
to our prose style. Hereafter we shall deviate as little as possible 
from the authorized version. 

4. These are the generations of the heavens and the earth on 
their being created, in the day that the Lord God made earth 
and heaven. 5. And not a plant of the field was yet in the 
land, and not an herb of the field yet grew ; for the Lord God 
had not caused it to rain upon the land, and there was no man 
to till the ground. 6. And a mist went up from the land 
and watered the whole face of the soil. 7. And the Lord God 
formed the man of dust from the soil, and breathed into his 
nostrils the breath of life : and man became a living soul. 

The document upon which we are now entering extends from Gen. 
ii. 4 to Gen. iv. In the second and third chapters the author uses the 
combination d" 1 !"^** rrirn the Lord God, to designate the Supreme 
Being ; in the fourth he drops fi^ffba God, and employs filfP the Lord, 
alone. So far, then, as the divine appellation is concerned, the fourth 
chapter is as clearly separable from the second and third as the first 
document is from the present. If diversity of the divine name were a 
proof of diversity of authorship, we should here have two documents 
due to different authors, each of them different also from the author of 
the first document. The second and third chapters, though agreeing 
in the designation of God, are clearly distinguishable in style. 



80 THE FIELD. 

The general subject of this document is the history of man to the 
close of the line of Cain and the birth of Enosh. This falls into three 
clearly marked sections, — the origin, the fall, and the family of Adam. 
The difference of style and phraseology in its several parts will be 
found to correspond with the diversity in the topics of which it treats. 
It reverts to an earlier point of time than that at which we had arrived 
in the former document, and proceeds upon a new plan, exactly adapted 
to the new occasion. 

The present section treats of the- process of nature which was simul- 
taneous with the latter part of the supernatural process described in the 
preceding document. Its opening paragraph refers to the field. 

4. This verse is the title of the present section. It states the sub- 
ject of which it treats, — the generations of the skies and the land. The 
generations are the posterity or the progress of events relating to the 
posterity of the party to whom the term is applied (Gen. v. 1, vi. 9, 
x. 1, xi. 10, xxxvii. 2). The development of events is here pre- 
sented under the figure of the descendants of a parental pair ; the skies 
and the land being the metaphorical progenitors of those events, which 
are brought about by their conjunct operation. 

It then notes the date at which the new narrative commences. In 
their being created.- This is the first or general date ; namely, after the 
primary creation and during the course of the secondary. As the 
latter occupied six days, some of the processes of nature began before 
these days had elapsed. Next, therefore, is the more special date, — in 
the day of Jehovah God's making land and skies. Now, on looking 
back at the preceding narrative, we observe that the skies were ad- 
justed and named on the second day, and the land on the third. Both, 
therefore, were completed on the third day, which accordingly is the 
opening date of the second branch of the narrative. 

The peculiarity of the present section, therefore, is, that it combines 
the creative with the preservative agency of God. Creation and pro- 
gress here go hand in hand for a season. The narrative here, then, 
overlaps half the time of the former, and at the end of the chapter has 
not advanced beyond its termination. 

Jehovah Elohim, the Lord God. This phrase is here for the first 
time introduced. Elohim, as we have seen, is the generic term denot- 
ing God as the Everlasting, and therefore the Almighty, as he was 
before all worlds, and still continues to be, now that he is the sole ob- 
ject of supreme reverence to all intelligent creatures. Jehovah is the 
proper name of God to man, self-existent himself, the author of exist- 



GEK II. 4-7, 81 

ence to all persons and things, and manifesting his existence to those 
whom he has made capable of such knowledge. 

Hence the latter name is appropriate to the present stage of our 
narrative. God has become active in a way worthy of himself, and at 
the same time peculiar to his nature. He has put forth his creative 
power in calling the universe into existence. He has now reconsti- 
tuted the skies and the land, clothed the latter with a new vegetation, 
and peopled it with a new animal kingdom. Especially has he called 
into being an inhabitant of this earth made in his own image, and 
therefore capable of understanding his works and holding intercourse 
with himself. To man he has now come to be in certain acts by which 
he has discovered himself and his power. And to man he has accord- 
ingly become known by a name which signalizes that new creative 
process of which man forms a prominent part. Jehovah — he who 
causes the successive events of time to come to pass in the sight and in 
the interest of man — is a name the peculiar significance of which will 
come out on future occasions in the history of the ways of God with 
man. 

The union of these two divine names, then, indicates him who was 
before all things, and by whom now all things consist. It also implies 
that he who is now distinguished by the new name Jehovah is the 
same who was before called Elohim. The combination of the names 
is specially suitable in a passage which records a concurrence of crea- 
tion and development. The apposition of the two names is continued 
by the historian through this and the following chapter. The abstract 
and aboriginal name then gives way to the concrete and the historical. 

The skies and the land at the beginning of the verse are given in 
order of their importance in nature, the skies being first as grander and 
higher than the land ; at the end, in the order of their importance in 
the narrative, the land being before the skies, as the future scene of 
the events to be recorded. 

This superscription, we see, presupposes the former document, as 
it alludes to the creation in general, and to the things made on the 
second and third days in particular, without directly narrating these 
events. This mode of referring to them implies that they were well 
known at the time of the narrator, either by personal observation or by 
testimony. Personal observation is out of the question in the present 
case. By the testimony of God, therefore, they were already known, 
and the preceding record is that testimony. The narrator of the sec- 
ond passage, therefore, even if not the same as that of the former, had 
11 



82 THE FIELD. 

to a moral certainty the first before his mind when composing the 
second. 

5. This verse corresponds to the second verse of the preceding nar- 
rative. It describes the field or arable land in the absence of certain 
conditions necessary to the progress of vegetation. Plant and herb 
here comprise the whole vegetable world. Plants and herbs of the 
field are those which are to be found in the open land. A different 
statement is made concerning each. 

Not a plant of the field was yet in the land. Here it is to be remem- 
bered that the narrative has reverted to the third day of the preceding 
creation. At first sight, then, it might be supposed that the vegetable 
species were not created at the hour of that day to which the narra- 
tive refers. But it is not stated that young trees were not in existence, 
but merely that plants of the field were not yet in the land. Of the 
herbs it is only said that they had not yet sent forth a bud or blade. 
And the actual existence of both trees and herbs is implied in what 
follows. The reasons for the state of things above described are the 
want of rain to water the soil, and of man to cultivate it. These would 
only suffice for growth if the vegetable seeds, at least, were already in 
existence. Now, the plants were made before the seeds (Gen. i. 11, 
12), and therefore the first full-grown and seed-bearing sets of each 
kind were already created. Hence we infer that the state of things 
described in the text was this : The original trees were confined to 
a centre of vegetation, from which it was intended that they should 
spread in the course of nature. At the present juncture, then, there 
was not a tree of the field, a tree of propagation, in the land ; and 
even the created trees had not sent down a single root of growth into 
the land. And if they had dropped a seed, it was only on the land, 
and not in the land, as it had not yet struck root. 

And not an herb of the field yet grew. The herbage seems to have 
been more widely diffused than the trees. Hence it is not said that 
they were not in the land, as it is said of field trees. But at the pres- 
ent moment not an herb had exhibited any signs of growth or sent 
forth a single blade beyond the immediate product of creative power. 

Rain upon the land, and man to till it, were the two wants that 
retarded vegetation. These two means of promoting vegetable growth 
differed in their importance and in their mode of application. Moisture 
is absolutely necessary, and where it is supplied in abundance the shift- 
ing wind will in the course of time waft the seed. The browsing herds 
will aid in the same process of diffusion. Man comes in merely as an 



GEK II. 4-7. 83 

auxiliary to nature in preparing the soil and depositing the seeds and 
plants to the best advantage for rapid growth and abundant fruitfulness. 
The narrative, as usual, notes only the chief things. Rain is the only 
source of vegetable sap ; man is the only intentional cultivator. 

6. As in the former narrative, so here, the remaining part of the 
chapter is employed in recording the removal of the two hinderances to 
vegetation. The first of these is removed by the institution of the 
natural process by which rain is produced. The atmosphere had been 
adjusted so far as to admit of some light. But even on the third day 
a dense mass of clouds still shut out the heavenly bodies from view. 
But on the creation of plants the Lord God caused it to rain on the 
land. This is described in the verse before us. A mist went up from 
the land. It had been ascending from the steaming, reeking land ever 
since the waters retired into the hollows. The briny moisture which 
could not promote vegetation is dried up. And now he causes the 
accumulated masses of cloud to burst forth and dissolve themselves in 
copious showers. Thus the mist watered the whole face of the soil. The 
face of the sky is thereby cleared, and on the following day the sun 
shone forth in all his cloudless splendor and fostering warmth. 

On the fourth day, then, a second process of nature commenced. 
The bud began to swell, the tender blade to peep forth and assume its 
tint of green, the gentle breeze to agitate the full-sized plants, the 
first seeds to be shaken off and wafted to their resting-place, the first 
root to strike into the ground, and the first shoot to rise towards the 
sky. 

This enables us to determine with some degree of probability the 
season of the year when the creation took place. If we look to the 
ripe fruit on the first trees we presume that the season is autumn. 
The scattering of the seeds, the falling of the rains, and the need of a 
cultivator intimated in the text, point to the same period. In a genial 
climate the process of vegetation has its beginnings at the falling of the 
early rains. Man would be naturally led to gather the abundant fruit 
which fell from the trees, and thus even unwittingly provide a store for 
the unbearing period of the year. It is probable, moreover, that he 
was formed in a region where vegetation was little interrupted by the 
coldest season of the year. This would be most favorable to the pres- 
ervation of life in his state of primeval inexperience. 

These presumptions are in harmony with the numeration of the 
months at the deluge (Gen. vii. 11), and with the outgoing and the 
turn of the year at autumn (Exod. xxiii. 16, xxxiv. 22). 



84 THE FIELD. 

7. The second obstacle to the favorable progress of the vegetable 
kingdom is now removed. And the Lord God formed the man of dust 
from the soil. This account of the origin of man differs from the 
former on account of the different end the author has in view. There 
his creation as an integral whole is recorded with special reference to 
his higher nature, by which he was fitted to hold communion with his 
Maker, and exercise dominion over the inferior creation. Here his 
constitution is described with marked regard to his adaptation to be the 
cultivator of the soil. He is a compound of matter and mind. His 
material part is dust from the soil, out of which he is formed as the 
potter moulds the vessel out of the clay. He is d^jx Adam, the man of 
the soil, tta'nx adamah. His mission in this respect is to draw out the 
capabilities of the soil to support by its produce the myriads of his 
race. 

His mental part is from another source. And breathed into his 
nostrils the breath of life. The word Fiais? is invariably applied to 
God or man, never to any irrational creature. The " breath of life " 
is peculiar to this passage. It expresses the spiritual and principal 
element in man, which is not formed, but breathed by the Creator into 
the bodily form of man. This rational part is that in which he bears 
the image of God, and is fitted to be his vicegerent on earth. As the 
earth was prepared to be the dwelling, so was the body to be the organ 
of that breath of life which is his essence, himself. 

And the man became a living soul. This term " living soul " is also 
applied to the water and land animals (Gen. i. 20, 21, 24). As by 
his body he is allied to earth and by his soul to heaven, so by the vital 
union of these he is associated with the whole animal kingdom, of which 
he is the constituted sovereign. This passage, therefore, aptly de- 
scribes him as he is fitted to dwell and rule on this earth. The height 
of his glory is yet to come out in his relation to the future and to God. 

The line of narrative here reaches a point of repose. The second 
want of the teeming soil is here supplied. The man to till the ground 
is presented in that form which exhibits his fitness for this appropriate 
and needful task. We are therefore at liberty to go back for another 
train of events which is essential to the progress of our narrative. 



GEN. II. 8-14. 85 



XI. THE GARDEN. — Gen. ii. 8-14. 

8. *% garden, park, 7rapaSct<ro?, an enclosed piece of ground, yns 
Eden, delight. d^J? fore-place, east ; foretime, 

11. "i'l^S Pishon; r. flow over, spread, leap, rtiin Chavilah. Vin 
sand. ^3rt region. 

12. fcbna av$pa£, carbuncle, (LXX.) /JSeAAtov, a gum of eastern 
countries, Arabia, India, Media (Josephus, etc.). The pearl (Kimchi). 
Dirij Trpdcrivos, leeklike, perhaps the beryl (LXX.), 6vv£, onyx, sardonyx, 
a precious stone of the color of the nail (Jerome). 

13. lima Gichon ; r. break forth. ttfca Kush ; r. heap, gather ? 

14. \>%vn sbw Dijlah, Tigris, p^n be sharp, rapidus, rY?5 Frat, 
Euphrates. The sweet or broad stream. Old P. /rata, Sansc. prathu, 
ffXarvs. 

8. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden to the east ; 
and pnt there the man whom he had formed. 

9. And the Lord God made to grow out of the soil every 
tree likely for sight and good for food ; and the tree of life in 
the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of 
good and evil. 10. And a river was going out of Eden to 
water the garden : and thence it was parted and became four 
heads. 11. The name of the one was Pishon ; it is that com- 
passing the whole land of Havilah, in which was gold. 12. And 
the gold of that land was good ; there were the bdellium and 
the onyx stone. 13. And the name of the second river was 
Gihon ; it is that compassing the whole land of Kush. 14. 
And the name of the third river was Hiddekel : it is that 
going east of Asshur. And the fourth river was Perath. 

This paragraph describes the planting of the garden of Eden, and 
determines its situation. Tt goes back, therefore, as we conceive, to 
the third day, and runs parallel with the preceding passage. 

8. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden to the east. It is 
evident that the order of thought is here observed. For the formation 
of man with special allusion to his animal nature immediately suggests 
the means by which his physical wants are to be supplied. The order 



86 THE GARDEN. 

of time is an open question so far as the mere conjunction of the 
sentences is concerned. It can only be determined by other considera- 
tions. 

Here, then, the writer either relates a new creation of trees for the 
occasion, or reverts to the occurrences of the third day. But though 
in the previous verses he declares the field to be without timber, yet in 
the account of the third day the creation of trees is recorded. Now, it 
is unnecessary, and therefore unreasonable, to assume two creations of 
trees at so short an interval of time. In the former paragraph the 
author advanced to the sixth day, in order to lay before his readers 
without any interruption the means by which the two conditions of 
vegetative progress were satisfied. This brings man into view, and his 
appearance gives occasion to speak of the means by which his wants 
were supplied. 

For this purpose the author drops the thread of events following the 
creation of man, and reverts to the third day. He describes more par- 
ticularly what was then done. A centre of vegetation was chosen for 
the trees, from which they were to be propagated by seed over the 
land. This central spot is called a garden or park. It is situated in a 
region which is distinguished by its name as a land of delight. It is 
said, as we understand, to be in the eastern quarter of Eden. For the 
word WV^a on the east is most simply explained by referring to some 
point indicated in the text. There are two points to which it may here 
refer, — the place where the man was created, and the country in which 
the garden was placed. But the man was not created at this time, and, 
moreover, the place of his creation is not indicated ; and hence we must 
refer to the country in which the garden was placed. 

And put there the man whom he had formed. The writer has still 
the formation of man in thought, and therefore proceeds to state that 
he was thereupon placed in the garden which had been prepared for 
his reception, before going on to give a description of the garden. This 
verse, therefore, forms a transition from the field and its cultivator to 
the garden and its inhabitants. 

Without the previous document concerning the creation, however, it 
could not have been certainly known that a new line of narrative was 
taken up in this verse. Neither could we have discovered what was 
the precise time of the creation of the trees. Hence this verse furnishes 
a new proof that the present document was composed, not as an inde- 
pendent production, but as a continuation of the former. 

9. Having located the newly-formed man of whom he had spoken 



GEN. II. 8-14. 87 

in the preceding paragraph, the author now returns to detail the plant- 
ing and the watering of the garden. And the Lord God made to grow 
out of the soil every tree likely for sight and good for food. We look 
on while the ornamental trees rise to gratify the sight, and the fruit 
trees present their mellow fare to the craving appetite. But preemi- 
nent among all we contemplate with curious wonder the tree of life in 
the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and 
evil. These will come under consideration at a future stage of our 
narrative. 

10. Here is a river the source of which is in Eden. It passes into 
the garden and waters it. And thence it was parted and became four 
heads. This statement means either that the single stream was divided 
into four branches, or that there was a division of the river system of 
the district into four principal streams, whose sources were all to be 
found in it, though one only passed through the garden. In the latter 
case the word *tft may be understood in its primary sense of a flowing 
of water in general. This flowing in all the parts of Eden resulted in 
four particular Sowings or streams, which do not require to have been 
ever united. The subsequent land changes in this district during an 
interval of five or six thousand years prevent us from determining 
more precisely the meaning of the text. 

11, 12. The Pishon waters in its subsequent course the land of 
Havilah. This country is noted for the best gold, and for two other 
products, concerning which interpreters differ. Bedolach is, according 
to the Septuagint, the carbuncle or crystal ; according to others, the 
pearl, or a particular kind of gum. The last is the more probable, if 
we regard the various Greek and Latin forms of the word : J3S£Wa, 
jSSeXAtov, Joseph. Ant. iii. 1, 6 ; ol Se /xaSeA-Koi/, ol Sk f3o\)(ov koXoikti, 
Dioscor. i. 71 ; alii brochon appellant, alii malacham, alii maldacon, 
Plin. H.N. 12, 9. Pliny describes it as black, while the manna, which 
is compared with it (Num. xi. 7), is white ; but "p2 the point of resem- 
blance may refer not to color, but to transparence or some other visible 
quality. This transparent, aromatic gum is found in Arabia, Babylo- 
nia, Bactriana, Media, and India. Shoham is variously conjectured to 
be the beryl, onyx, sardonyx, or emerald. The first, according to 
Pliny, is found in India and about Pontus. As the name Pishon 
means the gushing or spouting current, it may have been applied to 
many a stream by the migratory tribes. The Halys perhaps contains 
the same root with Havilah ; namely, bin (Rawlinson's Her. i.,p. 126) ; 
and it rises in Armenia (Herod, i. 72). The Chalybes in Pontus, per- 



88 THE GAEDEN. 

haps, contain the same root. The Pishon may have been the Halys or 
some other stream flowing into the Black Sea. 

13, 14. Gihon, the second river, flows by the land of Kush. It is 
possible that the name Kush remains in Caucasus and in the Caspian. 
The Gihon is the stream that breaks or bursts forth ; a quality common 
to many rivers. The name is preserved in the Jyhoon, flowing into the 
sea of Aral. Here it probably designates the leading stream flowing 
out of Armenia into the Caspian, or in that direction. Hiddekel, the 
third, goes in front, or on the east of Asshur. The original Asshur 
embraced northern Mesopotamia, as well as the slopes of the mountain 
range on the other side of the Tigris. Perath, the fourth, is the well- 
known Frat or Euphrates. 

In endeavoring to determine the situation of Eden, it is evident we 
can only proceed on probable grounds. The deluge, and even the dis- 
tance of time, warrant us in presuming great land changes to have 
taken place since this geographical description applied to the country. 
Let us see, however, to what result the simple reading of the text will 
lead us. A river is said to flow out of Eden into the garden. This 
river is not named, and may, in a primary sense of the term, denote 
the running water of the district in general. This is then said to be 
parted into four heads — the upper courses of four great rivers. One 
of these rivers is known to this day as the Frat or Euphrates. A 
second is with almost equal unanimity allowed to be the Dijlah or Ti- 
gris. The sources of these lie not far asunder, in the mountains of 
Armenia, and in the neighborhood of the lakes Van and Urumiah. 
Somewhere in this region must have been the celebrated but unnamed 
stream. The Hiddekel flowed east of Asshur ; the primitive portion of 
which seems therefore to have been in Mesopotamia. The Gihon 
may have flowed into the Caspian, on the banks of which was the 
original Kush. The Pishon may have turned towards the Euxine, and 
compassed the primitive Havilah, lying to the south and east of that 
sea. 

It may be said that the Kush and Havilah of later times belong to 
different localities. This, however, is no solid objection, on two 
grounds, — 

1st. Geography affords numerous examples of the transferrence of 
names from one place to another along the line of migration. Thus 
Galatia in Asia Minor would be inexplicable or misleading, did not 
history inform us that tribes from Gallia had settled there and given 
their name to the province. "We may therefore expect names to travel 



GEN. II. 8-14. »y 

with the tribes that bear them or love them, until they come to their 
final settlements. Hence Kush may have been among the Caucasian 
glens and on the Caspian shores. In the progress of his development, 
whether northward or southward, he may have left his mark in Kos- 
saea and Kissia, while he sent his colonies into southern Arabia Aethi- 
opia and probably India. 

2d. Countries agreeing in name may be totally unconnected either 
in time or place. Thus in the table of nations we meet with two 
persons called Havilah (Gen. x. 7, 29); the one a Kushite, who 
settled probably in the south of Arabia, the other a Joctanite, who oc- 
cupied a more northerly locality in the same peninsula. A primitive 
Havilah, different from both, may have given his name to the region 
southeast of the Euxine. 

The rivers Pishon and Gihon may have been greatly altered or even 
effaced by the deluge and other causes. Names similar to these may 
be found in various places. They cannot prove much more than re- 
semblance in language, and that may be sometimes very remote. There 
is one other Gihon mentioned in Scripture (1 Kings i. 33), and sev- 
eral like names occur in profane history. At first sight it seems to be 
stated that the one stream branched into four. If so, this community 
of origin has disappeared among the other changes of the country. But 
in the original text the words "and thence" come before the verb 
"parted." This verb has no subject expressed, and may have its 
subject implied in itself. The meaning of the sentence will then be, 
" and thence," after the garden had been watered by the river, " it," 
the river, or the water system of the country, " was parted into four 
heads." We cannot tell, and it is not material, which of these inter- 
pretations correctly represents the original fact. 

According to the above view, the land and garden of Eden lay in 
Armenia, around the lakes Van and Urumiah, or the district where 
these lakes now are. The country here is to this day a land of delight, 
and very well fitted in many respects to be the cradle of the human 
race. There is only one other locality that has any claim to probabil- 
ity from an examination of Scripture. It is the alluvial ground where 
the Euphrates and Tigris unite their currents, and then again separate 
into two branches, by which their waters are discharged into the Per- 
sian Gulf. The neck in which they are united is the river that waters 
the garden. The rivers, before they unite, and the branches, after 
they separate, are the four rivers. The claim of this position to ac- 
ceptance rests on the greater contiguity to Kissia or Susiana, a country 
12 



90 THE GAEDEN. 

of the Kushites, on the one side and on the other to Havilah, a district 
of Arabia, as well as its proximity to Babel, where the confusion of 
tongues took place. These claims do not constrain our assent. Susi- 
ana is nearer the Tigris itself than the present eastern branch after the 
separation. Havilah is not very near the western branch. If Babel 
be near, Armenia, where the ark rested, is very far away. Against 
this position is the forced meaning it puts on the text by its mode of 
accounting for the four rivers. The garden river in the text rises in 
Eden, and the whole four have their upper currents in that land. All 
is different in the case here supposed. Again, the land of Shinar is a 
great wheat country, and abounds in the date palm. But it is not 
otherwise distinguished for trees. It is a land of the simoon, the mi- 
rage, and the drought, and its summer heat is oppressive and enfeeb- 
ling. It cannot therefore claim to be a land of delight (Eden), either 
in point of climate or variety of produce. It is not, consequently, so 
well suited as the northern position, either to the description in the 
text or the requirements of primeval man. 

It is evident that this geographical description must have been writ- 
ten long after the document in which it is found might have been 
composed. Mankind must have multiplied to some extent, have spread 
themselves along these rivers, and become familiar with the countries 
here designated. All this might have taken place in the lifetime of 
Adam, and so have been put on record, or handed down by tradition 
from an eye-witness. But it is remarkable that the three names of 
countries reappear as proper names among the descendants of Noah 
after the flood. 

Hence arises a question of great interest concerning the composition 
of the document in which they are originally found. If these names 
be primeval, the document in its extant form may have been composed 
in the time of Adam, and therefore before the deluge. In this case 
Moses has merely authenticated it and handed it down in its proper 
place in the divine record. And the sons of Noah, from some unex- 
plained association, have adopted the three names and perpetuated 
them as family names. If, on the other hand, these countries are 
named after the descendants of Noah, the geographical description of 
the garden must have been composed after these men had settled in 
the countries to which they have given their names. At the same 
time, these territorial designations apply to a time earlier than Moses ; 
hence the whole document may have been composed in the time of 
Noah, who survived the deluge three hundred and fifty years, and may 



GEK II. 8-14. 91 

have witnessed the settlement and the designation of these countries. 
And, lastly, if not put together in its present form by any previous 
writer, then the document is directly from the pen of Moses, who com- 
posed it out of preexistent memorials. And as the previous document 
was solely due to inspiration, we shall in this case be led to ascribe the 
whole of Genesis to Moses as the immediate human composer. 

It must be admitted that any of these ways of accounting for the 
existing form of this document is within the bounds of possibility. But 
the question is, Which is the most probable ? We are in a fair position 
for discussing this question in a dispassionate manner, and without any 
anxiety, inasmuch as on any of the three suppositions Moses, who 
lived long after the latest event expressed or implied, is the acknowl- 
edged voucher for the document before us. It becomes us to speak 
with great moderation and caution on a point of so remote antiquity. 
To demonstrate this may be one of the best results of this inquiry. 

I. The following are some of the grounds for the theory that the 
names of countries in the document are original and antediluvian : 
1st. It was impossible to present to the postdiluvians in later terms the 
exact features and conditions of Eden, because many of these were 
obliterated. The four rivers no longer sprang from one. Two of the 
rivers remained, indeed, but the others had been so materially altered 
as to be no longer clearly distinguishable. The Euxine and the Cas- 
pian may now cover their former channels. In circumstances like 
these later names would not answer. 

2d. Though the name Asshur represents a country nearly suitable 
to the original conditions, Havilah and Kush cannot easily have their 
postdiluvian meanings in the present passage. The presumption that 
they have has led interpreters into vain and endless conjectures. Sup- 
posing Kush to be Aethiopia, many have concluded the Gihon to be 
the Nile, which in that case must have had the same fountain-head, or 
at least risen in the same region with the Euphrates. Others, suppos- 
ing it to be a district of the Tigris, near the Persian Gulf, imagine the 
Gihon to be one of the mouths of the united Euphrates and Tigris, and 
thus give a distorted sense to the statement that the four streams issued 
from one. This supposition, moreover, rests on the precarious hypoth- 
esis that the two rivers had always a common neck. The supposition 
that Havilah was in Arabia or on the Indian Ocean is liable to the same 
objections. Hence the presumption that these names are postdiluvian 
embarrasses the meaning of the passage. 

3d. If these names be primeval, the present document in its integ- 



92 THE GARDEN. 

rity may have been composed in the time of Adam ; and this accounts 
in the most satisfactory manner for the preservation of these traditions 
of the primitive age. 

4th. The existence of antediluvian documents containing these origi- 
nal names would explain in the simplest manner the difference in 
the localities signified by them before and after the deluge. This dif- 
ference has tended to invalidate the authenticity of the book in the 
eyes of some ; whereas the existence of antiquated names in a docu- 
ment, though failing to convey to us much historical information, is 
calculated to impress us with a sense of its antiquity and authenticity. 
And this is of more importance than a little geographical knowledge in 
a work whose paramount object is to teach moral and religious truth. 

5th. It is the habit of the sacred writers not to neglect the old 
names of former writers, but to append to them or conjoin with them 
the later or better known equivalents, when they wish to present a 
knowledge of the place and its former history. Thus, " Bela, this i3 
Zoar " (Gen. xiv. 2, 8) ; " Kiriath-Arba, this is Hebron" (Gen. xxiii. 
2) ; " Ephrath, this is Bethlehem " (Gen. xxxv. 19). 

6th. These names would be orignally personal ; and hence we can 
see a sufficient reason why the sons of Noah renewed them in their 
families, as they were naturally disposed to perpetuate the memory of 
their distinguished ancestors. 

II. The second hypothesis, that the present form of the document 
originated in the time of Noah, after the flood, is supported by the fol- 
lowing considerations : 1st. It accounts for the three names of coun- 
tries in the easiest manner. The three descendants of Noah had by 
this time given their names to these countries. The supposition of a 
double origin or application of these names is not necessary. 

2d. It accounts for the change in the localities bearing these names. 
The migrations and dispersions of tribes carried the names to new and 
various districts in the time intervening between Noah and Moses. 

3d. It represents with sufficient exactness the locality of the garden. 
The deluge may not have greatly altered the general features of the 
countries. It may not be intended to represent the four rivers as de- 
rived from any common head stream ; it may only be meant that the 
water system of the country gathered into four principal rivers. The 
names of all these are primeval. Two of them have descended to our 
days, because a permanent body of natives remained on their banks. 
The other two names have changed with the change of the inhabitants. 

4th. It allows for primeval documents, if such existed of so early a 



GEN. II. 8-14. 93 

date. The surviving document was prepared from such preexisting 
writings, or from oral traditions of early days, as yet unalloyed with 
error in the God-fearing family of Noah. 

oth. It is favored by the absence of explanatory proper names, 
which we might have expected if there had been any change known 
at the time of composition. 

III. The hypothesis that Moses was not merely the authenticator, 
but the composer of this as well as the preceding and subsequent doc- 
uments of Genesis, has some very strong grounds. 1st. It explains 
the local names with the same simplicity as in the preceding case (1). 
2d. It allows for primeval and successive documents equally well (4), 
the rivers Pishon and Gihon and the primary Havilah and Kush 
being still in the memory of man, though they disappeared from the 
records of later times. 3d. It notifies with fidelity to the attentive 
reader the changes in the geographical designations of the past. 4th. 
It accounts for the occurrence of comparatively late names of localities 
in an account of primeval times. 5th. It explains the extreme brevity 
of these ancient notices. If documents had been composed from time 
to time and inserted in their original state in the book of God, it must 
have been a very voluminous and unmanageable record at a very early 
period. 

These presumptions might now be summed up and compared, and 
the balance of probability struck, as is usually done. But we feel 
bound not to do so. 1st. We have not all the possibilities before us, 
neither is it in the power of human imagination to enumerate them, 
and therefore we have not the whole data for a calculation of proba- 
bilities. 2d. We have enough to do with facts, without elevating prob- 
abilities into the rank of facts, and thereby hopelessly embarrassing the 
whole premises of our deductive knowledge. Philosophy, and in par- 
ticular the philosophy of criticism, has suffered long from this cause. 
Its very first principles have been overlaid with foregone conclusions, 
and its array of seeming facts has been impaired and enfeebled by the 
presence of many a sturdy probability or improbability in the solemn 
guise of a mock fact. 3d. The supposed fact of a set of documents 
composed by successive authors, duly labelled and handed down to 
Moses to be merely collected into the book of Genesis, if it was lurk- 
ing in any mind, stands detected as only a probability or improbability 
at best. The second document implies facts, which are possibly not 
recorded till the fifth. 4th. And, lastly, there is no impossibility or 
improbability in Moses being not the compiler but the immediate 



94 THE COMMAND. 

author of the whole of Genesis, though it be morally certain that he 
had oral or written memoranda of the past before his mind. 



XII. THE COMMAND. — Gen. ii. 15-17. 
15. tvo rest, dwell. 152 work, till, serve. "rati keep, guard. 

15. And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the 
garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. 16. And the Lord 
God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden, 
eat, eat mayest thou. 17. But of the tree of the knowledge 
of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it ; for in the day of thy 
eating of it, die, die shalt thou. 

We have here the education of man summed up in a single sentence. 
Let us endeavor to unfold the great lessons that are here taught. 

15. The Lord God took the man. The same omnipotent hand that 
made him still held him. And put him into the garden. The original 
word is " caused him to rest," or dwell in the garden as an abode of 
peace and recreation. To dress it and to keep it. The plants of na- 
ture, left to their own course, may degenerate and become wild through 
the poverty of the soil on which they alight, or the gradual exhaustion 
of a once rich soil. The hand of rational man, therefore, has its appro- 
priate sphere in preparing and enriching the soil, and in distributing 
the seeds and training the shoots in the way most favorable for the 
full development of the plant, and especially of its seed or fruits. This 
" dressing " was needed even in the garden. The " keeping " of it 
may refer to the guarding of it by enclosure from the depredations of 
the cattle, the wild beasts, or even the smaller animals. It includes 
also the faithful preservation of it as a trust committed to man by his 
bounteous Maker. There was now a man to till the soil. The second 
want of the world of plants was now supplied. Gardening was the 
first occupation of primeval man. 

16, 17. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying. This is a 
pregnant sentence. It involves the first principles of our intellectual 
and moral philosophy. 

I. The command here given in words brings into activity the intel- 






GEN. H. 15-17. 95 

lectual nature of man. 1st. The power of understanding language is 
called forth. The command here addressed to him by his Maker is 
totally different from the blessings addressed to the animals in the 
preceding chapter. It was not necessary that these blessings should 
be understood in order to be carried into effect, inasmuch as He who 
pronounced them gave the instincts and powers requisite to their 
accomplishment. But this command addressed to man in words must 
be understood in order to be obeyed. The capacity for understanding 
language, then, was originally lodged in the constitution of man, and 
only required to be called out by the articulate voice of God. Still 
there is something wonderful here, something beyond the present grasp 
and promptitude of human apprehension. If we except the blessing, 
which may not have been heard, or may not have been uttered before 
this command, these words were absolutely the first that were heard 
by man. The significance of the sentences they formed must have 
been at the same time conveyed to man by immediate divine teaching. 
How the lesson was taught in an instant of time we cannot explain, 
though we have a distant resemblance of it in an infant learning to 
understand its mother-tongue. This process, indeed, goes over a space 
of two years ; but still there is an instant in which the first conception 
of a sign is formed, the first word is apprehended, the first sentence is 
understood. In that instant the knowledge of language is virtually 
attained. With man, created at once in his full though undeveloped 
powers, and still unaffected by any moral taint, this instant came with 
the first words spoken to his ear and to his soul by his Maker's im- 
pressive voice, and the first lesson of language was at once thoroughly 
taught and learned. Man is now master of the theory of speech ; the 
conception of a sign has been conveyed into his mind. This is the 
passive lesson of elocution : the practice, the active lesson, will speedily 
follow. 

Not only the secondary part, however, but at the same time the 
primary and fundamental part of man's intellectual nature is here 
developed. The understanding of the sign necessarily implies the 
knowledge of the thing signified. The objective is represented here 
by the " trees of the garden." The subjective comes before his mind 
in the pronoun " thou." The physical constitution of man appears in 
the process of " eating." The moral part of his nature comes out in 
the significance of the words " mayest " and " shalt not." The dis- 
tinction of merit in actions and things is expressed in the epithets 
" good and evil." The notion of reward is conveyed in the term' « life " 



96 THE COMMAND. 

and " death." And, lastly, the presence and authority of " the Lord 
God " is implied in the very nature of a command. Here is at least 
the opening of a wide field of observation for the nascent powers of 
the mind. He, indeed, must bear the image of God in perceptive 
powers, who shall scan with heedful eye the loftiest as well as the 
lowest in these varied scenes of reality. But as with the sign, so with 
the thing signified, a glance of intelligence instantaneously begins 
the converse of the susceptible mind with the world of reality around, 
and the enlargement of the sphere of human knowledge is merely a 
matter of time without end. How rapidly the process of apprehension 
would go on in the opening dawn of man's intellectual activity, how 
many flashes of intelligence would be compressed into a few moments 
of his first consciousness, we cannot tell. But we can readily believe 
that he would soon be able to form a just yet an infantile conception 
of the varied themes which are presented to his mind in this brief 
command. 

Thus the susceptible part of man's intellect is evoked. The con- 
ceptive part will speedily follow, and display itself in the many inven- 
tions that will be sought out and applied to the objects which are placed 
at his disposal. 

II. 1st. Next, the moral part of man's nature is here called into 
play. Mark God's mode of teaching. He issues a command. This 
is required in order to bring forth into consciousness the hitherto latent 
sensibility to moral obligation which was laid in the original constitu- 
tion of man's being. A command implies a superior, whose right it is 
to command, and an inferior, whose duty it is to obey. The only ulti- 
mate and absolute ground of supremacy is creating, and of inferiority, 
being created. The Creator is the only proper and entire owner ; and, 
within legitimate bounds, the owner has the right to do what he will 
with his own. The laying on of this command, therefore, brings man 
to the recognition of his dependence for being and for the character of 
that being on his Maker. From the knowledge of the fundamental 
relation of the creature to the Creator springs an immediate sense of 
the obligation he is under to render implicit obedience to the Author 
of his being. This is, therefore, man's first lesson in morals. It calls 
up in his breast the sense of duty, of right, of responsibility. These 
feelings could not have been elicited unless the moral susceptibility had 
been laid in the soul, and only waited for the first command to awaken 
it into consciousness. This lesson, however, is only the incidental 
effect of the command, and not the primary ground of its imposition. 



GEN. II. 15-17. 97 

2d. The special mandate here given is not arbitrary in its form, as is 
sometimes hastily supposed, but absolutely essential to the legal adjust- 
ment of things in this new stage of creation. Antecedent to the behest 
of the Creator, the only indefeasible right to all the creatures lay in 
himself. These creatures may be related to one another. In the 
great system of things, through the wonderful wisdom of the grand 
Designer, the use of some may be needful to the well-being, the devel- 
opment, and perpetuation of others. Nevertheless, no one has a shadow 
of right in the original nature of things to the use of any other. And 
when a moral agent comes upon the stage of being, in order to mark 
out the sphere of his legitimate action, an explicit declaration of the 
rights over other creatures granted and reserved must be made. The 
very issue of the command proclaims man's original right of property 
to be, not inherent, but derived. 

As might be expected in these circumstances, the command has two 
clauses, — a permissive and a prohibitive. " Of every tree of the gar- 
den thou mayst freely eat." This displays in conspicuous terms the 
benignity of the Creator. " But of the tree of the knowledge of good 
and evil thou shalt not eat." This signalizes the absolute right of the 
Creator over all the trees, and over man himself. One tree only is 
withheld, which, whatever were its qualities, was at all events not ne- 
cessary to the well-being of man. All the others that were likely for 
sight and good for food, including the tree of life, are made over to him 
by free grant. In this original provision for the vested rights of man 
in creation, we cannot but acknowledge with gratitude and humility 
the generous and considerate bounty of the Creator. This is not more 
conspicuous in the bestowment of all the other trees than in the with- 
holding of the one, the participation of which was fraught with evil to 
mankind. 

3d. The prohibitory part of this enactment is not a matter of indiffer- 
ence, as is sometimes imagined, but indispensable to the nature of a 
command, and, in particular, of a permissive act or declaration of 
granted rights. Every command has a negative part, expressed or 
implied, without which it would be no command at all. The command, 
" Go work to-day in my vineyard," implies thou shalt not do anything 
else ; otherwise the son who works not obeys as well as the son who 
works. The present address of God to Adam, without the exceptive 
clause, would be a mere license, and not a command. But with the 
exceptive clause it is a command, and tantamount in meaning to the 
following positive injunction: Thou mayest eat of these trees only. An 
13 



98 THE COMMAND. 

edict of license with a restrictive clause is the mildest form of command 
that could have been imposed for the trial of human obedience. Some 
may have thought that it would have been better for man if there had 
been no tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But second thoughts 
will correct this rash and wrong conclusion. 1st. This tree may have 
had other purposes to serve in the economy of things of which we are 
not aware ; and, if so, it could not have been absent without detriment 
to the general good. 2d. But without any supposition at all, the tree 
was fraught with no evil whatever to man in itself. It was in the first 
instance the instrument of great good, of the most precious kind, to 
him. It served the purpose of calling up into view out of the depths 
of his nature the notion of moral obligation, with all the kindred 
notions of the inherent authority of the Creator and the innate subor- 
dination of himself, the creature, of the aboriginal right of the Creator 
alone in all the creatures, and the utter absence of any right in him- 
self to any other creature whatsoever. The command concerning this 
tree thus set his moral convictions agoing, and awakened in him the 
new and pleasing consciousness that he was a moral being, and not a 
mere clod of the valley or brute of the field. This is the first thing 
this tree did for man ; and we shall find it would have done a still bet- 
ter thing for him if he had only made a proper use of it. 3d. The 
absence of this tree would not at all have secured Adam from the pos- 
sibility or the consequence of disobedience. Any grant to him what- 
soever must have been made with the reserve, implicit or explicit, of the 
rights of all others. The thing reserved must in equity have been made 
known to him. In the present course of things it must have come 
in his way, and his trial would have been inevitable, and therefore his 
fall possible. Now, the forbidden tree is merely the thing reserved. 
Besides, even if man had been introduced into a sphere of existence 
where no reserved tree or other thing could ever have come within the 
range of his observation, and so no outward act of disobedience could 
have been perpetrated, still, as a being of moral susceptibility, he must 
come to the acknowledgment, express or implied, of the rights of the 
heavenly crown, before a mutual good understanding could have been 
established between him and his Maker. Thus we perceive that even 
in the impossible Utopia of metaphysical abstraction there is a virtual 
forbidden tree which forms the test of a man's moral relation to his 
Creator. Now, if the reserve be necessary, and therefore the test of 
obedience inevitable, to a moral being, it only remains to inquire whether 
the test employed be suitable and seasonable. 



GEN. II. 15-17. 99 

4th. That which is here made the mo,tter of reserve, and so the test 
of obedience, is so far from being trivial or out of place, as has been 
imagined, that it is the proper and the only object immediately avail- 
able for these purposes. The immediate want of man is food. The 
kind of food primarily designed for him is the fruit of trees. Grain, 
the secondary kind of vegetable diet, is the product of the farm rather 
than of the garden, and therefore does not now come into use. As the 
law must be laid down before man proceeds to an act of appropriation, 
the matter of reserve and consequent test of obedience is the fruit of 
a tree. Only by this can man at present learn the lessons of morality. 
To devise any other means, not arising from the actual state of things 
in which man was placed, would have been arbitrary and unreasonable. 
The immediate sphere of obedience lies in the circumstances in which 
he actually stands. These afforded no occasion for any other com- 
mand than that which is given. Adam had no father, or mother, or 
neighbor, male or female, and therefore the second table of the law 
could not apply. But he had a relation to his Maker, and legislation 
on this could not be postponed. The command assumes the kindest, 
most intelligible, and convenient form for the infantile mind of primeval 
man. 

5th. We are now prepared to understand why this tree is called the 
tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The prohibition of this tree 
brings man to the knowledge of good and evil. The products of cre- 
ative power were all very good (Gen. i. 31) . Even this tree itself is 
good, and productive of unspeakable good in the first instance to man. 
The discernment of merit comes up in his mind by this tree. Obedi- 
ence to the command of God not to partake of this tree is a moral 
good. Disobedience to God by partaking of it is a moral evil. "When 
we have formed an idea of a quality, we have at the same time an idea 
of its contrary. By the command concerning this tree man became 
possessed of the conceptions of good and evil, and so, theoretically, 
acquainted with their nature. This was that first lesson in morals of 
which we have spoken. It is quite evident that this knowledge could 
not be any physical effect of the tree, seeing its fruit was forbidden. It 
is obvious also that evil is as yet known in this fair world only as the 
negative of good. Hence the tree is the tree of the knowledge of 
good and evil, because by the command concerning it man comes to 
this knowledge. 

6th. In the day of thy eating thereof die surely shalt thou. The divine 
command is accompanied with its awful sanction, — death. The man 



100 THE COMMAND. 

could not at this time have any practical knowledge of the physical 
dissolution called death. We must, therefore, suppose either that God 
made him preternaturally acquainted with it, or that he conveyed to 
him the knowledge of it simply as the negation of life. The latter 
hypothesis is to be preferred, for several reasons. First, it is the more 
economical mode of instruction. Such knowledge may be imparted to 
man without anticipating experience. He was already conscious of 
life as a pure blessing. He was therefore capable of forming an idea 
of its loss. And death in the physical sense of the cessation of ani- 
mal life and the disorganization of the body, he would come to under- 
stand in due time by experience. Secondly, death in reference to man 
is regarded in Scripture much more as the privation of life in the sense 
of a state of favor with God and consequent happiness than as the 
mere cessation of animal life (Gen. xxviii. 13; Exod. iii. 6; Matt. 
xxii. 32). Thirdly, the presence and privilege of the tree of life 
would enable man to see how easily he could be deprived of life, es- 
pecially when he began to drink in its life-sustaining juices and feel 
the flow of vitality rushing through his veins and refreshing his whole 
physical nature. Take away this tree, and with all the other resources 
of nature he cannot but eventually droop and die. Fourthly, the man 
would thus regard his exclusion from the tree of life as the earnest of 
the sentence which would come to its fulness, when the animal frame 
would at length sink down under the wear and tear of life like the 
beasts that perish. Then would ensue to the dead but perpetually 
existing soul of man the total privation of all the sweets of life, and the 
experience of all the ills of penal death. 

III. Man has here evidently become acquainted with his Maker. On 
the hearing and understanding of this sentence, at least, if not before, 
he has arrived at the knowledge of God, as existing, thinking, speak- 
ing, permitting, commanding, and thereby exercising all the prerogatives 
of that absolute authority over men and things which creation alone 
can give. If we were to draw all this out into distinct propositions, we 
should find that man was here furnished with a whole system of theol- 
ogy, ethics, and metaphysics, in a brief sentence. It may be said, in- 
deed, that we need not suppose all this conveyed in the sentence before 
us. But, at all events, all this is implied in the few words here re- 
corded to have been addressed to Adam, and there was not much time 
between his creation and his location in the garden for conveying any 
preliminary information. We may suppose the substance of the nar- 
rative contained in Gen. i. 2, 3, to have been communicated to him in 



GEN. II. 18-20. 101 

due time. But it could not be all conveyed yet, as we are only in the 
sixth day, and the record in question reaches to the end of the seventh. 
It was not, therefore, composed until after that day had elapsed. 

It is to be noticed here that God reserves to himself the administra- 
tion of the divine law. This was absolutely necessary at the present 
stage of affairs, as man was but an individual subject, and not yet spread 
out into a multitude of people. Civil government was not formally 
constituted till after the deluge. 

We can hardly overestimate the benefit, in the rapid development 
of his mind, which Adam thus derived from the presence and converse 
of his Maker. If no voice had struck his ear, no articulate sentence 
had reached his intellect, no authoritative command had penetrated 
his conscience, no perception of the Eternal Spirit had been presented 
to his apprehension, he might have been long in the mute, rude, and 
imperfectly developed state which has sometimes been ascribed to pri- 
meval man. But if contact with a highly accomplished master and a 
highly polished state of society makes all the difference between the 
savage and the civilized, what instantaneous expansion and elevation 
of the primitive mind, while yet in its virgin purity and unimpaired 
power, must have resulted from free converse with the all-perfect 
mind of the Creator himself! To the clear eye of native genius a 
starting idea is a whole science. By the insinuation of a few funda- 
mental and germinant notions into his mind, Adam shot up at once 
into the full height and compass of a master spirit prepared to scan 
creation and adore the Creator. 



XIII. THE NAMING OF THE ANIMALS. — Gen. ii. 18-20. 

18. And the Lord God said, It is not good that man should 
be alone : I will make a helpmeet for him. 19. And the Lord 
God formed out of the soil every beast of the field, and every 
fowl of the skies, and brought to the man to see what ho 
would call them ; and whatsoever the man called the living 
thing, that was the name thereof. 20. And the man gave 
names to all the cattle, and to the fowl of the skies, and to 
every beast of the field ; and for Adam was not found a help- 
meet for him. 



102 THE NAMING OF THE ANIMALS. 

Here man's intellectual faculties proceed from the passive and re- 
ceptive to the active and communicative stage. This advance is made 
in the review and designation of the various species of animals that 
frequent the land and skies. 

18. A new and final want of man is here stated. The Creator 
himself, in whose image he was made, had revealed himself to him in 
language. This, among many other effects, awakened the social affec- 
tion. This affection was the index of social capacity. The first step 
towards communication between kindred spirits was accomplished when 
Adam heard and understood spoken language. Beyond all this God 
knew what was in the man whom he had formed. And he expresses 
this in the words, " It is not good for the man to be alone." He is 
formed to be social, to hold converse, not only with his superior, but 
also with his equal. As yet he is but a unit, an individual. He needs 
a mate, with whom he may take sweet counsel. And the benevolent 
Creator resolves to supply this want. " I will make him a helpmeet 
for him," — one who may not only reciprocate his feelings, but take an 
intelligent and appropriate part in his active pursuits. 

19. Here, as in several previous instances (Gen. i. 5b, ii. 4, 8, 9), 
the narrative reverts to the earlier part of the sixth day. This is, 
therefore, another example of the connection according to thought over- 
ruling that according to time. The order of time, however, is restored, 
when we take in a sufficient portion of the narrative. "We refer, there- 
fore, to the fifth verse, which is the regulative sentence of the present 
passage. The second clause in the verse, however, which in the pres- 
ent case completes the thought in the mind of the writer, brings up the 
narrative to a point subsequent to that closing the preceding verse. 
The first two clauses, therefore, are to be combined into one ; and when 
this is done, the order of time is observed. 

Man has already become acquainted with his Maker. He has 
opened his eyes upon the trees of the garden, and learned to distinguish 
at least two of them by name. He is now to be introduced to the 
animal kingdom, with which he is connected by his physical nature, 
and of which he is the constituted lord. Not many hours or minutes 
before have they been called into existence. They are not yet, there- 
fore, multiplied or scattered over the earth, and so do not require to be 
gathered for the purpose. The end of this introduction is said to be 
to see what he would call them. To name is to distinguish the nature 
of anything and do denote the thing by a sound bearing some analogy 
to its nature. To name is also the prerogative of the owner, superior, 



GEN. II. 18-20. 103 

or head. Doubtless the animals instinctively distinguished man as their 
lord paramount, so far as his person and eye came within their actual 
observation. God had given man his first lesson in speech, when he 
caused him to hear and understand the spoken command. He now 
places him in a condition to put forth his naming power, and thereby 
go through the second lesson. 

With the infant, the acquisition of language must be a gradual 
process, inasmuch as the vast multitude of words which constitute its 
vocabulary has to be heard one by one and noted in the memory. The 
infant is thus the passive recipient of a fully formed and long-estab- 
lished medium of converse. The first man, on the other hand, having 
received the conception of language, became himself the free and 
active inventor of the greatest part of its words. He accordingly dis- 
cerns the kinds of animals, and gives each its appropriate name. The 
highly excited powers of imagination and analogy break forth into 
utterance, even before he has any one to hear and understand his 
words but the Creator himself. 

This indicates to us a twofold use of language. First, it serves to 
register things and events in the apprehension and the memory. Man 
has a singular power of conferring with himself. This he carries on by 
means of language, in some form or other. He bears some resemblance 
to his Maker even in the complexity of his spiritual nature. He is at 
once speaker and hearer, and yet at the same time he is consciously 
one. Secondly, it is a medium of intelligent communication between 
spirits who cannot read another's thoughts by immediate intuition. 
The first of these uses seems to have preceded the second in the case 
of Adam, who was the former of the first language. The reflecting 
reader can tell what varied powers of reason are involved in the use of 
language, and to what an extent the mind of man was developed, when 
he proceeded to name the several classes of birds and beasts. He was 
evidently fitted for the highest enjoyments of social intercourse. 

Among the trees in the garden God took the initiative, named the 
two that were conspicuous and essential to man's well being, and ut- 
tered the primeval command. Adam has now made acquaintance with 
the animal world, and, profiting by the lesson of the garden, proceeds 
himself to exercise the naming power. The names he gives are 
thenceforth the permanent designations of the different species of living 
creatures that appeared before him. These names being derived from 
some- prominent quality, were fitted to be specific, or common to the 
class, and not peculiar to the individual. 



104 THE WOMAN. 

20. "We find, however, there was another end served by this review 
of the animals. " There was not found a helpmeet for the man," — an 
equal, a companion, a sharer of his thoughts, his observations, his joys, 
his purposes, his enterprises. It was now evident, from actual survey, 
that none of these animals, not even the serpent, was possessed of rea- 
son, of moral and intellectual ideas, of the faculties of abstracting and 
naming, of the capacities of rational fellowship or worship. They 
might be ministers to his purposes, but not helpers meet for him. On 
the other hand, God was the source of his being and the object of his 
reverence, but not on a par with himself in wants and resources. It 
was therefore apparent that man in respect of an equal was alone, and 
yet needed an associate. Thus in this passage the existence of the 
want is made out and asserted ; in keeping with the mode of composi- 
tion uniformly pursued by the sacred writer (Gen. i. 2, ii. 5). 



XIV. THE WOMAN. - Gen. ii. 21-25. 

21. n^intn deep sleep, eKoracris LXX. 3&X rib, side, wing of a build- 
ing. 

23. ESQ beat, stroke, tread, anvil. $">&$ man, vir. S"HBX be firm, as a 
foundation; tvd^ be firm as a substance; UJSit be strong ; Bis give, help : 
hence the strong, the brave, the defender, the nourisher. fitex woman, 
fern, of the above ; wife. 

21. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the 
man, and he slept ; and he took one of his ribs, and closed 
up the flesh instead thereof. 22. And the Lord God built the 
rib which he had taken from the man into a woman, and 
brought her unto the man. 23. And the man said, This is 
now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh : to her shall be 
called womto, because she was taken out of a man. 24. There- 
fore shall a man leave his father and his mother and cleave 
unto his wife : and they shall be one flesh. 25. And they 
were both naked, the man and his wife, and they were not 
ashamed. 



GEN. II. 21-25. 105 

The second creative step in the constitution of man as the natural 
head of a race is now described. This supplies the defect that was 
drawn forth into consciousness in the preceding passage. Man here 
passes out of solitude into society, out of unity into multiplicity. 

21, 22. Here we find ourselves still in the sixth day. This pas- 
sage throws a new light on Genesis i. 27. It is there stated that man 
was first created in the image of God, and then that he was created 
male and female. From the present passage we learn that these two 
acts of creation were distinct in point of time. First, we see man was 
really one in his origin, and contained in this unity the perfection of 
manhood. It does not appear, however, that man was so constituted 
by nature as to throw off another of the same kind by his inherent 
power. In fact, if he had, the other should have been, not a female, 
but another human being in every respect like himself; and he would 
thus have resembled those plants that are capable of being propagated 
by a bud. Besides, he would have been endowed with a power dif- 
ferent from his actual posterity ; and thus the head would not have 
corresponded with the members of the race. The narrative, however, 
is opposed to this view of man's nature. For the change, by which the 
woman comes into existence, is directly ascribed to the original Maker. 
A part of the man is taken for the purpose, which can be spared with- 
out interfering with the integrity of his nature. It manifestly does not 
constitute a woman by the mere act of separation, as we are told that 
the Lord God built it into a woman. It is needless, therefore, to spec- 
ulate whether the part taken were literally a rib, or some other side 
piece designedly put there by the provident Creator, for the purpose 
of becoming the rudiment of a full-grown woman. It is expressly 
called, not a rib, but one of his ribs ; and this evidently implies that he 
had other similar parts. This binds us, we conceive, to the literal rib 
of bone and flesh. And thus, in accordance with the account in the 
foregoing chapter, we have, first, the single man created, the full rep- 
resentative and potential fountain of the race, and then, out of this one, 
in the way now described, we have the male and the female created. 

The original unity of man constitutes the strict unity of the race. 
The construction of the rib into a woman establishes the individuality 
of man's person before, as well as after, the removal of the rib. The 
selection of a rib to form into a woman constitutes her, in an eminent 
sense, a helpmeet for him, in company with him, on a footing of 
equality with him. At the same time, the after building of the part 
into a woman determines the distinct personality and individuality of 
14 



106 THE WOMAN 

the woman. Thus we perceive that the entire race, even the very first 
mother of it, has its essential unit and representative in the first man. 

The Almighty has called intelligent beings into existence in two 
ways. The angels he seems to have created as individuals (Mark xii. 
25), constituting an order of beings the unity of which lies in the com- 
mon Creator. Man he created as the parent of a race about to spring 
from a single head, and having its unity in that head. A single angel 
then stands by himself, and for himself; and all his actions belong only 
to himself, except so far as example, persuasion, or leadership may 
have involved others in them. But the single man, who is at the same 
time head of a race, is in quite a different position. He stands for the 
race, which is virtually contained in him ; and his actions belong not 
only to him as an individual, but, in a certain sense, to the whole race, 
of which he is at present the sum. An angel counts only for the unit 
of his order. The first man counts for the whole race as long as he is 
alone. The one angel is responsible only for himself. The first man 
is not only an individual, but, as long as he is alone, the sum total of a 
race ; and is therefore so long responsible, not only for himself, but for 
the race, as the head of which he acts. This deep question of race 
will meet us again at a future stage of man's history. 

As the All-wise Being never does anything without reason, it be- 
comes an interesting question, why the creation of woman was deferred 
to this precise juncture in human history. First, man's original unity 
is the counterpart of the unity of God. He was to be made in the 
image of God, and after his likeness. If the male and the female had 
been created at once, an essential feature of the divine likeness would 
have been wanting. But, as in the absolute One there is no duality, 
whether in sex or in any other respect, so is there none in the original 
form and constitution of man. Hence we learn the absurdity of those 
who import into their notions of the deity the distinction of sex, and 
all the alliances which are involved in a race of gods. Secondly, the 
natural unity of the first pair, and of the race descended from them, is 
established by the primary creation of an individual, from whom is de- 
rived, by a second creative process, the first woman. The race of man 
is thus a perfect unity, flowing from a single centre of human life. 
Thirdly, two remarkable events occur in the experience of man before 
the formation of the woman, — his instalment in the garden as its owner, 
keeper, and dresser ; and his review of the animals, as their rational 
superior, to whom they yield an instinctive homage. By the former 
he is prepared to provide for the sustenance and comfort of his wife ; 



GEK II. 21-25. 107 

by the latter, he becomes aware of his power to protect her. Still 
further, by the interview with his Maker in the garden he came to 
understand language ; and by the inspection of the animals to employ 
it himself. Speech implies the exercise of the susceptive and concep- 
tive powers of the understanding. Thus Adam was qualified to hold 
intelligent converse with a being like himself. He was competent to 
be the instructor of his wife in words and things. Again, he had met 
with his superior in his Creator, his inferiors in the animals ; and he 
was now to meet his equal in the woman. And, lastly, by the divine 
command his moral sense had been brought into play, the theory of 
moral obligation had been revealed to his mind, and he was therefore 
prepared to deal with a moral being like himself, to understand and 
respect the rights of another, to do unto another as he would have 
another do to him. It was especially necessary that the sense of right 
should grow up in his breast, to keep in due check that might in which 
he excelled, before the weaker and gentler sex was called into being, 
and intrusted to his charge. These are some of the obvious reasons 
for delaying the formation of the woman to the present crisis. 

23. Whether the primeval man was conscious of the change in him- 
self, and of the work of the Supreme Being while it was going on, or 
received supernatural information of the event when he awoke, does 
not appear. But he is perfectly aware of the nature of her who now 
for the first time appears before his eyes. This is evinced in his 
speech on beholding her : " This, now" — in contrast with the whole 
animal creation just before presented to his view, in which he had 
failed to find a helpmeet for him, — " is bone of my bone, and flesh of 
my flesh ; " whence we perceive that the rib included both bone and 
flesh. " To this " counterpart of myself " shall be called woman ; " 
the word in the original being a feminine form of man, to which we 
have no exact equivalent, though the word woman (womb-man, or 
wife-man), proves our word man to have been originally of the common 
gender. " Because out of a man was she taken ; " being taken out of 
a man, she is human ; and being a perfect individual, she is a female 
man. 

24. These might be the words of the first man. As he thoroughly 
understood the relation between himself and the woman, there is no 
new difficulty in conceiving him to become acquainted at the same time 
with the relationship of son to father and mother, which was in fact 
only another form of that in which the newly -formed woman stood to 
himself. The latter is really more intimate and permanent than the 



108 THE WOMAN. 

former, and naturally therefore takes its place, especially as the prac- 
tical of the filial tie, — that of being trained to maturity, — is already 
accomplished, when the conjugal one begins. 

But it seems more probable that this sentence is the reflection of the 
inspired author on the peculiar mode in which the female was formed 
from the male. Such remarks of the writer are frequently introduced 
by the word "therefore" Cj3"^?)- It is designed to inculcate on the 
race that was to spring from them the inviolable sanctity of the conju- 
gal relation. In the primeval wedlock one man was joined to one 
woman only for life. Hence in the marriage relation the animal is 
subordinate to the rational. The communication of ideas ; the cherish- 
ing of the true, the right, the good ; the cultivation of the social affec- 
tions ; the spontaneous outflow of mutual good offices ; the thousand 
nameless little thoughts, looks, words, and deeds that cheer the brow 
and warm the heart ; the common care of children, servants, and 
dependents ; the constant and heartfelt worship of the Father of all, 
constitute the main ends and joys of the married state. 

After the exclamation of the man on contemplating the woman, as 
bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh, and therefore physically, intel- 
lectually, and morally qualified to be his mate, we may suppose imme- 
diately to follow the blessing of man, and the general endowment of 
himself and the animals with the fruits of the soil as recorded in the 
preceding chapter (v. 28-30). The endowment of man embraces 
every tree in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed. This general 
grant was of course understood by man to exclude the tree of the 
knowledge of good and evil, which was excepted, if not by its specific 
nature, yet by the previous command given to man. This command 
we find was given before the formation of the woman, and therefore 
sometime before the events recorded in the second and third clauses of 
Gen. i. 27. Hence it preceded the blessing and the endowment. It 
was not peculiar, however, to the tree of the knowledge of good and 
evil to be intended for other purposes than the food of man, as there 
are very many other trees that afford no proper nutriment to man. 
The endowment, therefore, refers to such trees as were at the same 
time nutritive and not expressly and previously forbidden. 

This chapter is occupied with the " generations, issues or products 
of the skies and the land," or, in other words, of the things created in 
the six days. It is the meet preface to the more specific history of man, 
as it records his constitution, his provision, his moral and intellectual 
cultivation, and his social perfection. It brings us up to the close of 



gek n. 21-25. 109 

the sixth day. As the Creator pronounced a sentence of approbation 
on all that he had made at the end of that day, we have reason to be- 
lieve that no moral derangement had yet taken place in man's nature. 

25. This is corroborated by the statement contained in this verse. 
" They were both naked, and were not ashamed." Of nakedness in 
our sense of the term they had as yet no conception. On the contrary, 
they were conscious of being sufficiently clothed in a physical sense by 
nature's covering, the skin, — and, in a spiritual point of view, they 
were clad as in a panoply of steel with the consciousness of innocence, 
or, indeed, the unconsciousness of evil existing anywhere, and the 
simple ignorance of its nature, except so far as the command of God 
had awakened in them some speculative conception of it. Hence they 
were not ashamed. For shame implies a sense of guilt, which they 
had not, and an exposedness to the searching eye of a condemning 
judge, from which they were equally free. With the sentence termi- 
nates all we know of primeval innocence. May we surmise from it 
that the first pair spent at least the Sabbath, if not some days, or weeks, 
or years, in a state of integrity ? 

From what has been said, it is evident that this sentence was writ- 
ten after the fall ; for it speaks in language which was not intelligible till 
after that event had occurred. Contemplated in this point of view, it 
is the most melancholy sentence in the book of God. For it is evi- 
dently placed here to foreshadow the dark event to be recorded in the 
next chapter. 

Two hallowed institutions have descended to us from the days of 
primeval innocence, — the wedding and the Sabbath. The former in- 
dicates communion of the purest and most perfect kind between equals 
of the same class. The latter implies communion of the highest and 
holiest kind between the Creator and the intelligent creature. The two 
combined import communion with each other in communion with God. 

Wedded union is the sum and type of every social tie. It gives 
rise and scope to all the nameless joys of home. It is the native field 
for the cultivation of all the social virtues. It provides for the due 
framing and checking of the overgrowth of interest in self, and for the 
gentle training and fostering of a growing interest in others. It unfolds 
the graces and charms of mutual love, and imparts to the susceptible 
heart all the peace and joy, all the light and fire, all the frankness 
and life of conscious and constant purity and good-will. Friendship, 
brotherly-kindness, and love are still hopeful and sacred names among 
mankind. 



110 THE WOMAN. 

Sabbath-keeping lifts the wedded pair, the brethren, the friends, the 
one-minded, up to communion with God. The joy of achievement is a 
feeling common to God and man. The commemoration of the auspi- 
cious beginning of a holy and happy existence will live in man while 
memory lasts. The anticipation also of joyful repose after the end of 
a work well done will gild the future while hope survives. Thus the 
idea of the Sabbath spans the whole of man's existence. History and 
prophecy commingle in its peaceful meditations, and both are linked 
with God. God is : he is the Author of all being, and the Rewarder of 
them that diligently seek him. This is the noble lesson of the Sabbath. 
Each seventh day is well spent in attending to the realization of these 
great thoughts. 

Hence it appears that the social principle lies at the root of a spir- 
itual nature. In the very essence of the spiritual monad is the faculty 
of self-consciousness. Here is the curious mystery of a soul standing 
beside itself, cognizing itself, and taking note of its various faculties and 
acts, and yet perfectly conscious of its unity and identity. And the 
process does not stop here. We catch ourselves at times debating with 
ourselves, urging the pros and cons of a case in hand, enjoying the 
sallies or sorry for the poverty of our wit, nay, solemnly sitting in judg- 
ment on ourselves, and pronouncing a sentence of approval or disap- 
proval on the merit or demerit of our actions. Thus, throughout the 
whole range of our moral and intellectual nature, memory for the past 
and fancy for the future furnish us with another self, with whom we 
hold familiar converse. Here there is the social principle living and 
moving in the very centre of our being. Let the soul only look out 
through the senses and descry another like itself, and social converse 
between kindred spirits must begin. The Sabbath and the wedding 
touch the inner springs of the soul, and bring the social principle into 
exercise in the two great spheres of our relation to our Maker and to 
one another. 



SECTION III. — THE FALL. 



XV. THE FALL. — Gen. iii. 1-7. 

1. tins serpent ; r. hiss, Ges. ; sting, Mey. MIS subtle, crafty, using 
craft for defence. 

7. "nsn sew, stitch, tack together. rrii.nn girdle, not necessarily 
apron. 

III. 1. Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast 
of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto 
the woman, Then it is so that God hath said, Ye shall not eat 
of every tree of the garden. 2. Then said the woman to the 
serpent, Of the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat. 
3. But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the 
garden hath God said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither touch it, 
lest ye die. 4. Then said the serpent unto the woman, Not 
die, die shall ye. 5. For God doth know that in the day ye 
eat of it, then will your eyes be opened ; and ye will be like 
God, knowing good and evil. 6. And the woman saw that the 
tree was good for food, and that it was likely to the eyes, and 
a tree to be desired to make wise ; and she took of the fruit 
thereof and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, 
and he did eat. 7. Then were opened the eyes of them both, 
and they knew that they were naked ; and they sewed the 
leaves of the fig, and made themselves girdles. 

This chapter continues the piece commenced at Gen. ii. 4. The 
same combination of divine names is found here, except in the dialogue 
between the serpent and the woman, where God (n"irfbx) alone is used. 
It is natural for the tempter to use only the more distant and abstract 
name of God. It narrates in simple terms the fall of man. 



112 THE FALL. 

1. The serpent is here called a beast of the field ; that is, neither a 
domesticated animal nor one of the smaller sorts. The Lord God had 
made it, and therefore it was a creature called into being on the same 
day with Adam. It is not the wisdom, but the wiliness of the serpent 
which is here noted. This animal is destitute of arms or legs by 
which to escape danger. It is therefore thrown back upon instinct, 
aided by a quick and glaring eye, and a rapid dart and recoil, to evade 
the stroke of violence, and watch and seize the unguarded moment for 
inflicting the deadly bite. Hence the wily and insidious character of 
its instinct, which is noticed to account for the mode of attack here 
chosen, and the style of the conversation. The whole is so deeply 
designed, that the origin and progress of evil in the breast is as nearly 
as possible such as it might have been had there been no prompter. 
No startling proposal of disobedience is made, no advice, no persuasion 
to partake of the fruit is employed. The suggestion or assertion of 
the false only is plainly offered ; and the bewildered mind is left to 
draw its own false inferences, and pursue its own misguided course. 
The tempter addresses the woman as the more susceptible and un- 
guarded of the two creatures he would betray. lie ventures upon a 
half-questioning, half-insinuating remark, — "It is so, then, that God 
hath said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden." This seems 
to be a feeler for some weak point, where the fidelity of the woman to 
her Maker might be shaken. It hints at something strange, if not 
unjust or unkind, on the part of God. Why was any tree withheld ? 
he would insinuate. 

2, 3. The woman gives the natural and distinct answer of unaffected 
sincerity to this suggestion. The deviations from the strict letter of 
the law are nothing more than the free and earnest expressions of her 
feelings. The expression, " neither shall ye touch it," merely implies 
that they were not to meddle with it, as a forbidden thing. 

4, 5. The serpent now makes a strong and bold assertion, denying 
the deadly efficacy of the tree, or the fatal consequence of partaking of 
it, and affirming that God was aware that on the eating of it their eyes 
would be opened, and they would be like himself in knowing good 
and evil. 

Let us remember that this was the first falsehood the woman ever 
heard. Her mind was also infantile as yet, so far as experience was 
concerned. The opening mind is naturally inclined to believe the 
truth of every assertion, until it has learned by experience the false- 
hood of some. There was also in this falsehood that which gives the 



GEN. III. 1-7. 



113 






power to deceive, a great deal of truth combined with the element of 
untruth. The tree was not physically fatal to life, and the eating of 
it really issued in a knowledge of good and evil. Nevertheless, the 
partaking of that which was forbidden issued in the legal and actual 
privation of life. And it did not make them know good and evil alto- 
gether, as God knows it, but in an experimental sense, as the devil 
knows it. In point of knowledge, they became like God ; in point of 
morality, like the tempter. 

6. And the woman saw. She saw the tree, no doubt, and that it 
was likely to look upon, with the eye of sense. But only with the eye 
of fancy, highly excited by the hints of the tempter, did she see that it 
was good for food, and to be desired to make one wise. Appetite, 
taste, and philosophy, or the love of wisdom, are the great motives in 
the human breast which fancy assumes this tree will gratify. Other 
trees please the taste and the sight. But this one has the preeminent 
charm of administering not only to the sense, but also to the reason. 

It would be rash to suppose that we can analyze that lightning 
process of instinctive thought which then took place in the mind of the 
woman ; and worse than rash, it would be wrong, to imagine that we 
can show the rationale of that which in its fundamental point was a 
violation of right reason. But it is evident from this verse that she 
attached some credit to the bold statement of the serpent, that the eat- 
ing of the fruit would be attended with the extraordinary result of 
making them, like God himself, acquainted with good and evil, espe- 
cially as it did not contradict any assertion of Jehovah, God, and was 
countenanced by the name, " the tree of the knowledge of good and 
evil." It was evidently a new thought to her, that the knowledge of 
good and evil was to result from the eating of it. That God should 
know this, if a fact, was undeniable. Again, to know good and evil as 
the effect of partaking of it, implied that the consequence was not a 
cessation of existence, or of consciousness ; for, if so, how could there be 
any knowledge ? And, if death in her conception implied merely 
exclusion from the favor of God and the tree of life, might she not im- 
agine that the new knowledge acquired, and the elevation to a new 
resemblance, or even equality to God himself in this respect, would be 
more than a compensation for such losses ; especially as the disinter- 
estedness of the divine motives had been at least called in question by 
the serpent ? Here, no doubt, is a fine web of sophistry, woven by the 
excited fancy in an instant of time. 

It is easy to say the knowledge of good and evil was not a physical 
15 



114 THE FALL. 

effect of eating of the fruit ; that the obtaining of this knowledge by 
partaking of it was an evil, and not a good in itself and in its conse- 
quences, as it was the origin of an evil conscience, which is in itself an 
unspeakable ill, and attended with the forfeiture of the divine favor, 
and of the tree of life, and with the endurance of all the positive mis- 
ery which such a condition involves ; and that the command of God 
was founded on the clearest right, — that of creation, — occasioned by 
the immediate necessity of defining the rights of man, and prompted by 
disinterested benevolence toward His intelligent creatures, whom He 
was framing for such intellectual and moral perfection, as was by them 
attainable. It is easy to cry out, How unreasonable was the conduct 
of the primeval pair ! Let us not forget that any sin is unreasonable, 
unaccountable, essentially mysterious. In fact, if it were wholly rea- 
sonable, it would no longer be sin. Only a moment before, the woman 
had declared that God had said, " Of the fruit of the tree in the midst 
of the garden, ye shall not eat." Yet she now sees, and her head is so 
full of it that she can think of nothing else, that the tree is good for 
food and pleasant to the eyes, — as if there were no other good and 
pleasant trees in the garden, and, as she fancies, desirable to make one 
wise, like God ; as if there were no other way to this wisdom but an 
unlawful one, and no other likeness to God but a stolen likeness, — 
and therefore takes of the fruit and eats, and gives to her husband, and 
he eats ! The present desire is without any necessity gratified by an 
act known to be wrong, at the risk of all the consequences of disobedi- 
ence ! Such is sin. 

7. Certain immediate effects of the act are here stated. Their eyes 
were opened. This cannot mean literally that they were blind up to 
this moment ; for Adam, no doubt, saw the tree in the garden concern- 
ing which he received a command, the animals which he named, and the 
woman whom he recognized as bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh. 
And of the woman it is affirmed that she saw that the tree possessed 
certain qualities, one of which at least was conspicuous to the eye. 

It must therefore mean that a new aspect was presented by things 
on the commission of the first offence. As soon as the transgression 
is actually over, the sense of the wrongfulness of the act rushes on the 
mind. The displeasure of the great Being whose command has been 
disobeyed, the irretrievable loss which follows sin, the shame of being 
looked upon by the bystanders as a guilty thing, crowd upon the 
view. All nature, every single creature, seems now a witness of their 
guilt and shame, a condemning judge, an agent of the divine vengeance. 



GEN. III. 1-7. 115 

Such is tlie knowledge of good and evil they have acquired by their 
fall from obedience, — such is the opening of the eye which has requi- 
ted their wrong-doing. What a different scene had once presented 
itself to the eyes of innocence ! All had been friendly. All nature 
had bowed in willing obedience to the lords of the earth. Neither the 
sense nor the reality of danger had ever disturbed the tranquillity of 
their pure minds. 

They knew that they were naked. This second effect results imme- 
diately from the consciousness of guilt. They now take notice that 
their guilty persons are exposed to view, and they shrink from the 
glance of every condemning eye. They imagine there is a witness of 
their guilt in every creature, and they conceive the abhorrence which 
it must produce in the spectator. In their infantile experience they 
endeavor to hide their persons, which they feel to be suffused all over 
with the blush of shame. 

Accordingly, they sewed the leaves of the Jlg t which, we may suppose, 
they wrapped round them, and fastened with the girdles they had 
formed for this purpose. The leaves of the fig did not constitute the 
girdles, but the coverings which were fastened on with these. These 
leaves were intended to conceal their whole persons from observation. 
Job describes himself sewing sackcloth on his skin (Job xvi. 15), and 
girding on sackcloth (1 Kings xx. 32; Lam. ii. 10; Joel i. 8) is a 
familiar phrase in Scripture. The primitive sewing was some sort of 
tacking together, which is not more particularly described. Every 
operation of this sort has a rude beginning. The word girdle (iTjiiah) 
signifies that which girds on the dress. 

Here it becomes us to pause for a moment that we may mark what 
was the precise nature of the first transgression. It was plainly diso- 
bedience to an express and well-understood command of the Creator. 
It matters not what was the nature of the command, since it could not 
be other than right and pure. The more simple and easy the thing 
enjoined, the more blameworthy the act of disobedience. But what 
was the command ? Simply to abstain from the fruit of a tree, which 
was designated the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, upon pain 
of death. We have seen already that this command arose from the 
necessity of immediate legislation, and took its shape as the only pos- 
sible one in the circumstances of the case. The peculiar attraction, 
however, which the forbidden tree presented, was not its excellence 
for the appetite or pleasantness to the eyes, since these were common 
to all the trees, but its supposed power of conferring moral knowledge 



116 THE FALL. 

on those who partook of it, and, according to the serpent's explanation, 
making them like God in this important respect. Hence the real and 
obvious motive of the transgressor was the desire of knowledge and 
likeness to God. Whatever other lusts, therefore, may have after- 
wards come out in the nature of fallen man, it is plain that the lust 
after likeness to God in moral discernment was that which originally 
brought forth sin in man. Sexual desire does not appear here at all. 
The appetite is excited by other trees as well as this. The desire of 
knowledge, and the ambition to be, in some sense, divine, are alone 
peculiar and prevalent as motives. Hence it appears that God proved 
our first parents, not through any of the animal appetites, but through 
the higher propensities of their intellectual and moral nature. Though 
the occasion, therefore, may at first sight appear trivial, yet it becomes 
awfully momentous when we discover that the rectitude of God is im- 
pugned, his prerogative invaded, his command disregarded, his attri- 
bute of moral omniscience and all the imaginable advantages attendant 
thereupon grasped at with an eager and wilful hand. To disobey the 
command of God, imposed according to the dictates of pure reason, and 
with the authority of a Creator, from the vain desire of being like him, 
or independent of him, in knowledge, can never be anything but an 
offence of the deepest dye. 

"We are bound, moreover, to acknowledge and maintain, in the most 
explicit manner, the equity of the divine procedure in permitting the 
temptation of man. The only new thing here is the intervention of the 
tempter. It may be imagined that this deciever should have been kept 
away. But we must not speak with inconsiderate haste on a matter of 
such import. 1st. We know that God has not used forcible means to 
prevent the rise of moral evil among his intelligent creatures. We 
cannot with reason affirm that he should have done so ; because, to put 
force on a voluntary act, and yet leave it voluntary, seems to reason 
a contradiction in terms, and, therefore, impossible ; and unless an act 
be voluntary, it cannot have any moral character ; and without volun- 
tary action, we cannot have a moral agent. 2d. We know that God 
does not immediately annihilate the evil-doer. Neither can we affirm 
with reason that he ought to have done so ; for, to lay an adequate 
penalty on sin, and then put the sinner out of existence, so that this 
penalty can never be exacted, seems to reason a moral inconsistency, 
and, therefore, impossible in a being of moral perfection. 3d. We 
know that God does not withdraw the evil-doer from all intercourse 
with other moral agents. Here, again, reason does not constrain us to 



GEK III. 1-7. 117 

pronounce that it is expedient so to do ; for the innocent ought, and it is 
natural that they should, learn a holy abhorrence of sin, and a salutary 
dread of its penalty, from these waifs of society, rather than follow 
their pernicious example. The wrong-doers are not less under the 
control of God than if they were in the most impenetrable dungeon ; 
while they are at the same time constant beacons to warn others from 
transgression. He leaves them to fill up the measure of their iniquity, 
while the intelligent world are cognizant of their guilt, that they may 
acknowledge the justice of their punishment, and comprehend the in- 
finite holiness of the judge of all the earth. 4th. We know that God 
tries his moral creatures. Abraham, Job, and all his saints have to 
undergo their trial. He suffered the Lord Jesus Christ, the second 
Adam, to be tempted. And we must not expect the first Adam to be 
exempted from the common ordeal. "We can only be assured that his 
justice will not allow his moral creatures to be at any disadvantage in 
the trial. Accordingly, 1st, God himself in the first instance speaks 
to Adam, and gives him an explicit command not arbitrary in its con- 
ception, but arising out of the necessity of the case. And it is plain 
that Eve was perfectly aware that he had himself imposed this prohi- 
bition. 2d. The tempter is not allowed to appear in his proper person 
to our first parents. The serpent only is seen or heard by them, — a 
creature inferior to themselves, and infinitely beneath the God who 
made them, and condescended to communicate with them with the 
authority of a father. 3d. The serpent neither threatens nor directly 
persuades ; much less is he permitted to use any means of compulsion : 
he simply falsifies. As the God of truth had spoken to them before, 
the false insinuation places them at no disadvantage. 

Man has now come to the second step in morals, — the practice. 
Thereby he has come to the knowledge of good and evil, not merely 
as an ideal, but as an actual thing. But he has attained this end, not 
by standing in, but by falling from, his integrity. If he had stood the 
test of this temptation, as he might have done, he would have come by 
the knowledge of good and evil equally well, but with a far different 
result. As he bore the image of God in his higher nature, he would 
have resembled him, not only in knowledge, thus honorably acquired 
by resisting temptation, but also in moral good, thus realized in his 
own act and will. As it is, he has gained some knowledge in an 
unlawful and disastrous way ; but he has also taken in that moral evil, 
which is the image, not of God, but of the tempter, to whom he has 
yielded. 



118 THE FALL. 

This result is rendered still more lamentable when we remember 
that these transgressors constituted the human race in its primeval 
source. In them, therefore, the race actually falls. In their sin the 
race is become morally corrupt. In their guilt the race is involved in 
guilt. Their character and doom descend to their latest posterity. 

We have not yet noticed the circumstance of the serpent's speaking, 
and of course speaking rationally. This seems to have awakened no 
attention in the tempted, and, so far as we see, to have exercised no 
influence on their conduct. In their inexperience, it is probable that 
they did not yet know what was wonderful, and what not ; or, in 
preciser terms, what was supernatural, and what natural. But even 
if they had known enough to be surprised at the serpent speaking, it 
might have told in opposite ways upon their conclusions. On the one 
hand, Adam had seen and named the serpent, and found in it merely 
a dumb irrational animal, altogether unfit to be his companion, and 
therefore he might have been amazed to hear him speak, and, shall 
we say, led to suspect a prompter. But, on the other hand, we have 
no reason to suppose that Adam had any knowledge or suspicion of 
any creature but those which had been already brought before him, 
among which was the serpent. He could, therefore, have no surmise 
of any superior creature who might make use of the serpent for its own 
purposes. We question whether the thought could have struck his 
mind that the serpent had partaken of the forbidden fruit, and thereby 
attained to the marvellous elevation from brutality to reason and speech. 
But, if it had, it would have made a deep impression on his mind of 
the wonderful potency of the tree. These considerations apply with 
perhaps still greater force to Eve, who was first deceived. 

But to us who have a more extensive experience of the course of 
nature, the speaking of a serpent cannot be regarded otherwise than as 
a preternatural occurrence. It indicates the presence of a power 
above the nature of the serpent, possessed, too, by a being of a malig- 
nant nature, and at enmity with God and truth ; a spiritual being, who 
is able and has been permitted to make use of the organs of the ser- 
pent in some way for the purposes of temptation. But while for a 
wise and worthy end this alien from God's home is permitted to test 
the moral character of man, he is not allowed to make any appearance 
or show any sign of his own presence to man. The serpent alone 
is visibly present ; the temptation is conducted only through words 
uttered by bodily organs, and the tempted show no suspicion of any 
other tempter. Thus in the disposal of a just Providence, man is 



GEN. III. 8-21. 119 

brought into immediate contact only with an inferior creature, and 
therefore has a fair field in the season of trial. And if that creature 
is possessed by a being of superior intelligence, this is only displayed 
in such a manner as to exert no influence on man but that of suggest- 
ive argument and false assertion. 



XVI. THE JUDGMENT. — Gen. iii. 8-21. 

15. t]VJ bruise, wound. Trjpecv (=r€peiv?) cKrpt/Seii/ (Job ix. 17), 
KaTa7rar€tv (Ps. cxxxix. 11), awTpipziv (Rom. xvi. 20). 

16. MJ5t|lBPj desire, inclination, airoarpo^i), iiriarTpofprj (Song vii. 11). 
20. rnn Eve, the living, life, life-place, or village. 

8. And they heard the voice of the Lord God, walking in the 
garden in the air of the day : and the man and his wife hid 
themselves from the face of the Lord God amidst the trees of 
the garden. 9. And the Lord God called to the man and 
said unto him, Where art thou ? 10. And he said, Thy voice 
I heard in the garden ; and I was afraid, because I was naked, 
and I hid myself. 11. And he said, Who showed thee that 
thou wast naked ? Hast thou eaten of the tree of which I 
commanded thee not to eat ? 12. And the man said, The 
woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the 
tree and I did eat. 13. Then said the Lord God to the woman, 
What is this thou hast done ? And the woman said, The ser- 
pent beguiled me, and I did eat. 14. Then said the Lord God 
unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, cursed art thou 
above all cattle and above every beast of the field : upon thy 
belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy 
life. 15. And enmity will I put between thee and the woman, 
and between thy seed and her seed ; he shall bruise thy head, 
and thou shalt bruise his heel. § 1. 

16. Unto the woman he said, Multiply, multiply will I thy 
sorrow and thy conception : in sorrow shalt thou bring forth 



120 THE JUDGMENT. 

children ; and xmto thy husband shall be thy desire, and he 
shall rule over thee. § 2. 

17^ And to the man he said, Because thou hast hearkened 
to the voice of thy wife, and didst eat of the tree of which I 
commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it, cursed is 
the ground for thy sake ; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the 
days of thy life. 18. And thorns and thistles shall it grow to 
thee ; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. 19. In the 
sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, until thou return to 
the soil, out of which thou wast taken ; for dust thou art, and 
unto dust shalt thou return. 

20. And the man called his wife's name Eve, because she 
was the mother of all living. 21. And the Lord God made for 
Adam and for his wife coats of skin, and clothed them. IF 8. 



This passage contains the examination of the transgressors, 8-13, 
the sentence pronounced upon each, 14-19, and certain particulars 
following thereupon, 20, 21. 

8, 9. The voice, we conceive, is the thunder of the approach of God 
and his call to Adam. The hiding is another token of the childlike 
simplicity of the parents of our race under the shame and fear of ^uilt. 
The question, Where art thou ? implies that the Lord was aware of their 
endeavor to hide themselves from him. 

10-12. Adam confesses that he was afraid of God, because he was 
naked. There is an instinctive hiding of his thoughts from God in 
this very speech. The nakedness is mentioned, but not the disobedience 
from which the sense of it arose. To the direct interrogatory of the 
Almighty, he confesses who made him acquainted with his nakedness 
and the fact of his having eaten of the forbidden fruit : " The woman 
gave me of the tree, and I did eat" 

13. The woman makes a similar confession and a similar indication 
of the source of her temptation. She has now found out that the ser- 
pent beguiled her. The result has not corresponded to the benefit she 
was led to anticipate. 

There seems not to be any disingenuousness in either case. Sin 
does not take full possession of the will all at once. It is a slow 
poison. It has a growth. It requires time and frequent repetition to 



GEN. III. 8-21. 121 

sink from a state of purity into a habit of inveterate sin. While it is 
insensibly gathering strength and subjugating the will, the original in- 
tegrity of the moral nature manifests a long but fading vitality. The 
same line of things does not always occupy the attention. When the 
chain of events linked with the act of sin does not force the attention 
of the mind, and constrain the will to act a selfish part, another train 
of things comes before the mind, finds the will unaffected by personal 
considerations, and therefore ready to take its direction from the rea- 
son. Hence the consciousness of a fallen soul has its lucid intervals, 
in which the conscience gives a verdict and guides the will. But 
these intervals become less frequent and less decisive as the entangle- 
ments of ever-multiplying sinful acts wind round the soul and aggra- 
vate its bondage and its blindness. 

14, 15. Here begins the judgment. Sentence is pronounced upon 
the serpent in the presence, no doubt, of the man and woman. The 
serpent is not examined, first, because it is a dumb unreasoning ani- 
mal in itself, and therefore incapable of judicial examination, and it 
was the serpent only that was palpable to the senses of our first parents 
in the temptation ; and, secondly, because the true tempter was not a 
new, but an old offender. 

This sentence has a literal application to the serpent. The curse 
(Gen. ix. 25, n.) of the serpent lies in a more grovelling nature than 
that of the other land animals. This appears in its going on its belly 
and eating the dust. Other animals have at least feet to elevate them 
above the dust ; the serpent tribe has not even feet. Other animals 
elevate the head in their natural position above the soil : the serpent 
lays its head naturally on the sod, and therefore may be said to eat 
the dust, as the wounded warrior bites the dust in death. The earth- 
worm is probably included in the description here given of the serpent 
group. It goes upon its belly, and actually does eat the dust. Eating 
the dust, like feeding upon ashes, is an expression for signal defeat in 
every aim. The enmity, the mode of its display, and the issue are also 
singularly characteristic of the literal serpent. 

It is the custom of Scripture jurisprudence to visit brute animals 
with certain judicial consequences of injuries they have been instru- 
mental in doing to man, especially if this has arisen through the design 
or neglect of the owner, or other responsible agent (Gen. ix. 5 ; Exod. 
xxi. 28-36). In the present case the injury done was of a moral, not 
a physical nature. Hence the penalty consists in a curse ; that is, a 
state of greater degradation below man than the other land animals. 
16 



122 THE JUDGMENT. 

The serpent in the extraordinary event here recorded exercised the 
powers of human speech and reasoning. And it is natural to 
suppose that these exhibitions of intelligence were accompanied with 
an attitude and a gesture above its natural rank in the scale of crea- 
tion. The effect of the judicial sentence would be to remand it to its 
original grovelling condition, and give rise to that enmity which was 
to end in its destruction by man. 

But as an evil spirit must have employed the serpent, as the animal 
whose organs and instincts were most adapted to its purpose, and has 
accordingly derived its name from it as presenting the animal type most 
analogous to its own spiritual nature, so the whole of this sentence has 
its higher application to the real tempter. Upon thy belly shalt thou 
go. This is expressive of the lowest stage of degradation to which a 
spiritual creature can be sunk. Dust shalt thou eat. This is indica- 
tive of disappointment in all the aims of being. I will put enmity. 
This is still more strictly applicable to the spiritual enemy of mankind. 
It intimates a hereditary feud between their respective races, which is 
to terminate, after some temporary suffering on the part of the woman's 
seed, in the destruction of the serpent's power against man. The spirit- 
ual agent in the temptation of man cannot have literally any seed. 
But the seed of the serpent is that portion of the human family that 
continues to be his moral offspring, and follows the first transgression 
without repentance or refuge in the mercy of God. The seed of the 
woman, on the other hand, must denote the remnant who are born 
from above, and hence turn from darkness to light, and from the power 
of Satan unto God. 

Let us now mark the lessons conveyed in the sentence of the ser- 
pent to our first parents, who were listening and looking on. 1st. The 
serpent is styled a mere brute animal. All, then, that seemed to indi- 
cate reason as inherent in its nature or acquired by some strange event 
in its history is thus at once contradicted. 2d. It is declared to be 
lower than any of the other land animals ; as being destitute of any 
members corresponding to feet or hands. 3d. It is not interrogated as 
a rational and accountable being, but treated as a mere dumb brute. 
4th. It is degraded from the airs and attitudes which may have been 
assumed, when it was possessed by a serpent-like evil spirit, and falls 
back without a struggle to that place of debasement in the animal 
kingdom for which it was designed. 5th. It is fated to be disappointed 
in its aims at usurpation. It shall bite the dust. Gth. It is doomed to 



GEN. III. 8-21. 123 

ultimate and utter discomfiture in its hostile assaults on the seed of the 
woman. 

All this must have made a deep impression on our first parents. 
But two things must have struck them with peculiar force. First, it was 
now evident how vain and hollow were its pretensions to superior wis- 
dom, and how miserably deluded they had been when they listened to 
its false insinuations. If, indeed, they had possessed maturity of reflec- 
tion, and taken time to apply it, they would have been strangely bewil- 
dered with the whole scene, now that it was past. How the serpent, 
from the brute instinct it displayed to Adam when he named the ani- 
mals, suddenly rose to the temporary exercise of reason and speech, 
and as suddenly relapsed into its former bestiality, is, to the mere 
observer of nature, an inexplicable phenomenon. But to Adam, who 
had as yet too limited an experience to distinguish between natural 
and preternatural events, and too little development of the reflective 
power to detect the inconsistency in the appearance of things, the sole 
object of attention was the shameless presumption of the serpent, and 
the overwhelming retribution which had fallen upon it ; and, conse- 
quently, the deplorable folly and wickedness of having been misguided 
by its suggestions. 

A second thing, however, was still more striking to the mind of man 
in the sentence of the serpent ; namely, the enmity that was to be put 
between the serpent and the woman. Up to a certain point there had 
been concord and alliance between these two parties. But, on the very 
opening of the heavenly court, we learn that the friendly connection 
had been broken. For the woman said, " The serpent beguiled me, 
and I did eat." This expression indicates that the woman was no 
longer at one with the serpent. She was now sensible that its part 
had been that, not of friendship, but of guile, and therefore of the 
deepest and darkest hostility. When God, therefore, said, " I will put 
enmity between thee and the woman," this revulsion of feeling on her 
part, in which Adam no doubt joined, was acknowledged and approved. 
Enmity with the enemy of God indicated a return to friendship with 
God, and presupposed incipient feelings of repentance towards him, 
and reviving confidence in his word. The perpetuation of this enmity 
is here afiirmed, in regard not only to the woman, but to her seed. 
This prospect of seed, and of a godly seed, at enmity with evil, became 
a fountain of hope to our first parents, and confirmed every feeling of 
returning reverence for God which was beginning to spring up in their 
breast. The word heard from the mouth of God begat faith in their 



124 THE JUDGMENT. 

hearts, and we shall find that this faith was not slow to manifest itself 
in acts. 

We cannot pass over this part of the sentence without noticing the 
expression, " ike seed of the woman." Does it not mean, in the first 
instance, the whole human race ? Was not this race at enmity with 
the serpent ? And though that part only of the seed of the woman 
which eventually shared in her present feelings could be said to be at 
enmity with the serpent spirit, yet, if all had gone well in Adam's fam- 
ily, might not the whole race have been at enmity with the spirit of 
disobedience ? Was not the avenue to mercy here hinted at as wide 
as the offer of any other time ? And was not this universality of invi- 
tation at some time to have a response in the human family ? Does 
not the language of the passage constrain us to look forward to the 
time when the great mass, or the whole of the human race then alive 
on the earth, will have actually turned from the power of Satan unto 
God ? This could not be seen by Adam. But was it not the plain 
import of the language, that, unless there was some new revolt after 
the present reconciliation, the whole race would, even from this new 
beginning, be at enmity with the spirit of evil ? Such was the dread 
lesson of experience with which Adam now entered upon the career of 
life, that it was to be expected he would warn his children against de- 
parting from the living God, with a clearness and earnestness which 
would be both understood and felt. 

But, still further, do we not pass from the general to the particular 
in the sentence, " He shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his 
heel ? " Is not the seed of the woman here individualized and matched 
in deadly conflict with the individual tempter ? Does not this phrase- 
ology point to some preeminent descendant of the woman, who is, with 
the bruising of his lower nature in the encounter, to gain a signal and 
final victory over the adversary of man ? There is some reason to 
believe from the expression, " I have gotten a man from the Lord " 
(Gen. iv. 1), that Eve herself had caught a glimpse of this meaning, 
though she applied it to the wrong party. The Yulgate also, in what 
was probably the genuine reading, ipse (he himself) points to the 
same meaning. The reading ipsa (she herself) is inconsistent with 
the gender of the Hebrew verb, and with that of the corresponding 
pronoun in the second clause (his), and is therefore clearly an error 
of the transcriber. 

Lastly, the retributive character of the divine administration is 
remarkably illustrated in the phrase. The serpent, in a wily but das- 



GEN. in. 8-21. 125 

tardly spirit, makes the weaker sex the object of his attack. It is the 
seed of the woman especially that is to bruise his head. It is singular 
to find that this simple phrase, coming in naturally and incidentally in 
a sentence uttered four thousand years, and penned at least fifteen 
hundred years, before the Christian era, describes exactly and literally 
Him who was made of woman without the intervention of man, that he 
might destroy the works of the devil. This clause in the sentence of 
the tempter is the first dawn of hope for the human family after the 
fall. We cannot tell whether to admire more the simplicity of its 
terms, the breadth and comprehensiveness of its meaning, or the 
minuteness of its application to the far-distant event which it mainly 
contemplates. 

The doom here pronounced upon the tempter must be regarded as 
special and secondary. It refers to the malignant attack upon man, 
and foretells what will be the issue of this attempt to spread disaffection 
among the intelligent creation. And it is pronounced without any 
examination of the offender, or investigation of his motives. If this 
had been the first offence against the majesty of heaven, we humbly 
conceive a solemn precognition of the case would have taken place, 
and a penalty would have been adjudicated adequate to the magnitude 
of the crime and analagous to the punishment of death in the case of 
man. The primary act of defiance and apostasy from the Creator 
must have been perpetrated without a tempter, and was, therefore, 
incomparably more heinous than the secondary act of yielding to temp- 
tation. "Whether the presence of the tempter on earth intimates that 
it was the place of his abode in a state of innocence, or that he visited 
it because he had heard of the creation of man, or that he was there 
from some altogether different reason, is a vain and unprofitable in- 
quiry. 

16. The sentence of the woman consists of three parts : the former 
two regard her as a mother, the last as a wife. Sorrow is to be mul- 
tiplied in her pregnancy, and is also to accompany the bearing of chil- 
dren. This sorrow seems to extend to all the mother's pains and 
anxieties concerning her offspring. "With what solicitude she would 
long for a manifestation of right feeling toward the merciful God in 
her children, similar to that which she had experienced in her own 
breast ! "What unutterable bitterness of spirit would she feel when 
the fruits of disobedience would discover themselves in her little ones, 
and in some of them, perhaps, gather strength from year to year ! 

The promise of children is implicitly given in these two clauses. It 



126 THE JUDGMENT. 

came out also incidentally in the sentence of the serpent. What a 
wonderful conception is here presented to the minds of the primeval 
pair ! Even to ourselves at this day the subject of race is involved in 
a great deal of mystery. We have already noticed the unity of the 
race in its head. But the personality and responsibility of individuals 
involve great and perplexing difficulties. The descent of a soul from 
a soul is a secret too deep for our comprehension. The first man was 
potentially the race, and, so long as he stands alone, actually the whole 
race for the time. His acts, then, are those not merely of the indi- 
vidual, but of the race. If a single angel fall, he falls alone. If the 
last of a race were to fall, he would in like manner involve no other in 
his descent. But if the first of a race fall, before he has any offspring, 
the race is fallen. The guilt, the depravity, the penalty, all belong to 
the race. This is a great mystery. But it seems to follow inevitably 
from the constitution of a race, and it has clear evidences of its truth 
both in the facts and the doctrines of the Bible. 

When we come to view the sin of our first parents in this light, it is 
seen to entail tremendous consequences to every individual of the race. 
The single transgression has involved the guilt, the depravity, and the 
death, not only of Adam, but of that whole race which was in him, 
and thus has changed the whole character and condition of mankind 
throughout all time. 

In the instructions going before and coming after are found the 
means of training up these children for God. The woman has learned 
that God is not only a righteous judge, but a forbearing and merciful 
Father. This was enough for her at present. It enabled her to enter 
upon the journey of life with some gleams of hope amidst the sorrows 
of the family. And in the experience of life it is amazing what a 
large proportion of the agreeable is mingled with the troubles of our 
fallen race. The forbearance and goodness of God ought in all reason 
and conscience to lead us back to a better feeling towards him. 

The third part of her sentence refers to her husband, — Thy desire 
shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. This is evidently 
a piece of that retributive justice which meets us constantly in the 
administration of God. The woman had taken the lead in the trans- 
gression. In the fallen state, she is to be subject to the will of her 
husband. " Desire " does not refer to sexual desire in particular. 
(Gen. iv. 7). It means, in general, turn, determination of the will. 
" The determination of thy will shall be yielded to thy husband, and 
accordingly he shall rule over thee." The second clause, according to 



GEN. III. 8-21. 127 

the parallel structure of the sentence, is a climax or emphatic reitera- 
tion of the first, and therefore serves to determine its meaning. Under 
fallen man, woman has been more or less a slave. In fact, under the 
rule of selfishness, the weaker must serve the stronger. A spiritual 
resurrection only will restore her to her true place, as the helpmeet for 
man. 

17-19. The key-word in the sentence of the man is the soil. The 
curse (Gen. ix. 25, n.) of the soil is the want of the fruit trees with 
which the garden was planted, and of that spontaneous growth which 
would have rendered the toil of man unnecessary. The rank growth 
of thorns and thistles was also a part of the curse which it occasioned 
to man when fallen. His sorrow was to arise from the labor and 
sweat with which he was to draw from the ground the means of sub- 
sistence. Instead of the spontaneous fruits of the garden, the herb of 
the field, which required diligent cultivation, was henceforth to consti- 
tute a principal part of his support. And he had the dreary prospect 
before him of returning at length to the ground whence he was taken. 
He had an element of dust in him, and this organic frame was eventu- 
ally to work out its own decay, when apart from the tree of life. 

It is to be observed that here is the first allusion to that death which 
was the essential part of the sentence pronounced on the fallen race. 
The reasons of this are obvious. The sentence of death on those who 
should eat of the forbidden fruit had been already pronounced, and was 
well known to our first parents. Death consisted in the privation of 
that life which lay in the light of the divine countenance, shining with 
approving love on an innocent child, and therefore was begun on the 
first act of disobedience, in the shame and fear of a guilty conscience. 
The few traits of earthly discomfort which the sentences disclose, are 
merely the workings of the death here spoken of in the present stage 
of our existence. And the execution of the sentence, which comes to 
view in the following passage, is the formal accomplishment of the 
warning given to the transgressor of the divine will. 

In this narrative the language is so simple as to present no critical 
difficulty. And, on reviewing the passage, the first thing we have to 
observe is, that the event here recorded is a turning-point of tran- 
scendent import in the history of man. It.is no less than turning from 
confidence in God to confidence in his creature when contradicting 
him, and, moreover, from obedience to his express and well-remembered 
command to obedience to the dictates of misguided self-interest. It is 
obvious that, to the moral character of the transaction, it is of no conse- 



128 THE JUDGMENT. 

quence who the third party was who dared to contradict and malign 
his Maker. The guilt of man consists simply in disobeying the sole 
command of his beneficent Creator. The only mitigating circumstance 
is the suggestion of evil by an external party. But the more insig- 
nificant the only ostensible source of temptation, the more inexcusable 
the guilt of man in giving way to it. 

This act altered fundamentally the position and character of man. 
He thereby descended from innocence to guilt in point of law, and at 
the same time from holiness to sin in point of character. Tremendous 
was the change, and equally tremendous the consequence. Death is, 
like most scriptural terms, a pregnant word, and here to be understood 
in the full compass of its meaning. It is the privation, not of existence, 
as is often confusedly supposed, but of life, in all its plenitude of mean- 
ing. As life includes all the gratifications of which our human sus- 
ceptibilities are capable, so death is the privation of all the sources of 
human enjoyment, and among them of the physical life itself, while 
the craving for ease and the sense of pain retain all their force in the 
spiritual part of our nature. These poignant emotions reach their 
highest pitch of intensity when they touch the conscience, the ten- 
derest part of our being, and forebode the meeting of the soul, in its 
guilty state, with a just and holy God. 

This event is real. The narrative expresses in its strongest terms 
its reality. The event is one of the two alternatives which must fol- 
low from the preceding statements concerning the tree of the knowledge 
of good and evil, and affords an explanation of their nature. It is 
no less essential to account for that which follows. The problem of 
the history and condition of man can only be solved by this primeval 
fact. Conscience still remains an imperishable monument, on the one 
hand, of his having been formed after a perfect model ; and, on the 
other, of his having fallen from his high estate. And all the facts of 
his history carry up his fall as far as the traditions of human memory 
reach. 

And the narrative here is a literal record of the details of this great 
event. So far as regards God and man, the literality has never been 
questioned by those who acknowledge the event to be real. Some, 
however, have taken the serpent to be, not a literal, but a figurative 
serpent ; not an animal, but a spiritual being. The great dragon, in- 
deed, is identified with " the ancient serpent called the devil and Satan." 
And hence we know that a being of a higher nature than the mere 
animal was present and active on this occasion. And this spiritual 



GEN. III. 8-21. 129 

being was with great propriety called the serpent, both from its ser- 
pentine qualities and from choosing the serpent as the most suitable 
mask under which to tempt our first parents. But we cannot thence infer 
that a literal serpent was not employed in the temptation. The serpent 
is said to be "more subtle than any beast of the field." 1st. The 
obvious meaning of this is, that it was itself a beast of the field. Thus 
Joseph, whom Israel loved more than all his children, was one of his 
children (Gen. xxxvii. 8). He that was higher than any of the people, 
was himself one of the people (2 Sam. ix. 2). 2d. If the serpent be 
here figurative, and denote a spirit, the statement that it was subtle 
above all the beasts of the field is feeble and inadequate to the occa- 
sion. It is not so, that man is distinguished from the other animals. 
In much more forcible language ought the old serpent to be distin- 
guished from the unreasoning brute. 3d. We have seen a meetness 
in a being of flesh, and that not superior, or even equal to man, being 
permitted to be employed as the medium of temptation. Man was 
thereby put at no disadvantage. His senses were not confounded by a 
supersensible manifestation. His presence of mind was not disturbed 
by an unusual appearance. 4th. The actions ascribed to the tempter 
agree with the literal serpent. Wounding the heel, creeping on the 
belly, and biting the dust, are suitable to a mere animal, and especially 
to the serpent. The only exception is the speaking, and, what is im- 
plied in this, the reasoning. These, however, do not disprove the 
presence of the literal serpent when accompanied with a plain statement 
of its presence. They only indicate, and that to more experienced 
observers than our first parents, the presence of a lurking spirit, 
expressing its thoughts by the organs of the serpent. 

It may be thought strange that the presence of this higher being is 
not explicitly noticed by the sacred writer. But it is the manner of 
Scripture not to distinguish and explain all the realities which it relates, 
but to describe the obvious phenomena as they present themselves to 
the senses ; especially when the scope of the narrative does not require 
more, and a future revelation or the exercise of a sanctified experience 
will in due time bring out their interpretation. Thus the doings of 
the magicians in Egypt are not distinguished from those of Moses by 
any disparaging epithet (Ex. vii. 10-12). Only those of Moses are 
greater, and indicate thereby a higher power. The witch of Endor 
is consulted, and Samuel appears ; but the narrative is not careful to 
distinguish then and there whether by the means of witchcraft or by 
the very power of God. It was not necessary for the moral training 
17 



130 THE JUDGMENT. 

of our first parents at that early stage of their existence to know who 
the real tempter was. It would not have altered the essential nature 
of the temptation, of the sentence pronounced on any of the parties, or 
of the hopes held out to those who were beguiled. 

This brings into view a system of analogy and mutual relation per- 
vading the whole of Scripture as well as nature, according to which the 
lower order of things is a natural type of the higher, and the nearer of 
the more remote. This law displays itself in the history of creation, 
which, in the creative work of the six days, figures to our minds, and, 
as it were, lays out in the distance those other antecedent processes of 
creative power that have intervened since the first and absolute crea- 
tion ; in the nature of man, which presents on the surface the animal 
operations in wonderful harmony with the spiritual functions of his 
complex being ; in the history of man, where the nearer in history, in 
prophecy, in space, in time, in quality, matter, life, vegetative and ani- 
mate, shadow forth the more remote. All these examples of the 
scriptural method of standing on and starting from the near to the far 
are founded upon the simple fact that nature is a rational system of 
things, every part of which has its counterpart in every other. Hence 
the history of one thing is, in a certain form, the history of all things 
of the same kind. 

The serpent is of a crafty instinct, and finds, accordingly, its legiti- 
mate place at the lowest step of the animal system. Satan seeks the 
opportunity of tempting Adam, and, in the fitness of things, turns to 
the serpent as the ready medium of his assault upon human integrity. 
He was limited to such a medium. He was not permitted to have any 
intercourse with man, except through the senses and in the way of 
speech. He was also necessitated to have recourse to the serpent, as 
the only creature suited to his purpose. 

The place of the serpent in the scale of animals was in keeping with 
the crookedness of its instinct. It was cursed above all cattle, as it 
was inferior to them in the want of those limbs which serve for rising, 
moving, and holding ; such as legs and arms. This meaning of cursed 
is familiar to Scripture. " Cursed is the ground for thy seed " ( Gen. 
iii. 17). It needed the toil of man to repress thorns and thistles, and 
cultivate plants more useful and needful to man. " This people who 
knoweth not the law are cursed" (John vii. 49). This is a relative 
use of the word, by which a thing is said to be cursed in respect of its 
failing to serve a particular end. Hence the serpent's condition was a 
fit emblem of the spiritual serpent's punishment for its evil doings 
regarding man. 



GEN. III. 8-21. 131 

Through the inscrutable wisdom of the divine providence, however, 
it was not necessary, or may not have been necessary, to change in 
the main the state of the natural serpent or the natural earth in order 
to carry out the ends of justice. The former symbolized in a very 
striking manner the helplessness and disappointment of the enemy 
of man. The latter exacted that labor of man which was the just 
consequence of his disobedience. This consequence would have been 
avoided if he had continued to be entitled to the tree of life, which 
could no doubt have been propagated beyond its original bounds. But 
a change in the moral relation of the heart towards God brings along 
with it in the unsearchable ways of divine wisdom a change as great in 
the bearing of the events of time on the destiny of man. While the 
heart is with God, all things work together for good to us. When the 
heart is estranged from him, all things as inevitably work together for 
evil, without any material alteration in the system of nature. 

We may even ascend a step higher into the mysteries of providence ; 
for a disobedient heart, that forms the undeserving object of the 
divine compassion, may be for a time the unconscious slave of a train 
of circumstances, which is working out its recovery from the curse as 
well as the power of sin through the teaching of the Divine Spirit. 
The series of events may be the same in which another is floating 
down the stream of perdition. But to the former these events are the 
turning-points of a wondrous moral training, which is to end in recon- 
ciliation to. God and restoration to his likeness. 

A race, in like manner, that has fallen from communion with God, 
may be the subject of a purpose of mercy, which works out, in the 
providence of God, the return of some to his home and love, and the 
wandering of others away further and further into the darkness and 
misery of enmity with God. 

And though this system of things is simple and uniform in the eyes 
of the only wise God, yet to human view parts of it appear only as 
special arrangements and retributions, exactly meeting the case of man 
and serving for his moral education. No doubt they are so. But 
they are also parts of a constant course of nature, pursued with unde- 
viating regularity, yet ordered with such infallible wisdom as to ac- 
complish at the same time both general and special ends. Hence, with- 
out- any essential change in the serpent's natural instincts, it serves for 
a striking monument of the defeat and destruction of the devil and his 
works. The ground, without any change in its inherent nature, but 
merely by the removal, it may be, of the tree of life, is cursed to man, 
as it demands that toil which is the mark of a fallen race. 



\ 

» 

132 THE JUDGMENT. 

The question of miracles, or special interpositions of the divine will 
and power which cross the laws of nature, is not now before us. By 
the very definition of miracles they transcend the laws of nature ; that 
is, of that system of events which is known to us by observation. But 
it does not follow that they transcend a higher law of the divine plan, 
which may, partly by revelation and partly even by a deeper study of 
ourselves and things around us, be brought to light. By the investiga- 
tions of geology we seem compelled to acknowledge a succession of 
creations at great intervals of time, as a law of the divine procedure 
on our globe. But, thousands of years before geology was conceived, 
one such creation, subsequent to the great primal act by which the 
universe was called into existence, was made known to us by divine 
revelation. And beside periodical miracle, we find recorded in the 
book of revelation a series of miracles, which were performed in pur- 
suance of the divine purpose of grace toward the fallen race of man. 
These are certainly above nature, according to the largest view of it 
which has ever been current among our philosophers. But let us not 
therefore imagine that they are above reason or grace, — above the 
resources and determinations of the divine mind and will concerning 
the development of the universe. 

20, 21. These verses record two very significant acts consequent 
upon the judgment : one on the part of Adam, and another on the 
part of God. 

20. The man here no doubt refers to two expressions in the senten- 
ces he had heard pronounced on the serpent and the woman. " He," 
the seed of the woman, " shall bruise thy head." Here it is the woman 
who is to bear the seed. And this seed is to bruise the serpent's head ; 
that is, in some way to undo what had been done for the death of man, 
and so reinvest him with life. This life was therefore to come by the 
woman. Again, in the address of the judge to the woman he had 
heard the words, " Thou shalt bear children." These children are the 
seed, among whom is to be the bruiser of the serpent's head, and the 
author of life. And in an humbler, nearer sense, the woman is to be 
the mother of children, who are the living, and perpetuate the life of 
the race amid the ravages which death is daily committing on its'indi- 
vidual members. These glimmerings of hope for the future make a 
deep impression upon the father of mankind. He perceives and be- 
lieves that through the woman in some way is to come salvation for the 
race. He gives permanent expression to his hope in the significant 
name which he gives to his wife. Here we see to our unspeakable 



GEN. m. 8-21. 133 

satisfaction the dawn of faith, — a faith indicating a new beginning of 
spiritual life, and exercising a salutary influence on the will, faintly 
illuminating the dark bosom of our first parent. The mother of man- 
kind has also come to a better mind. The high and holy Spirit has in 
mercy withdrawn the cloud of misconception from the minds of both, 
and faith in the Lord and repentance have sprung up in their new-born 
souls. 

21. As the preceding verse records an instance of humble, appre- 
hending faith in the divine word, so here we have a manifest act of 
mercy on the part of God, indicating the pardon and acceptance of 
confessing, believing man, rejoicing in anticipation of that future vic- 
tory over the serpent which was to be accomplished by the seed of 
the woman. This act is also suitable to the present circumstances of 
man, and at the same time strikingly significant of the higher blessings 
connected with restoration to the divine favor. He had discovered his 
nakedness, and God provides him with a suitable covering. He was 
to be exposed to the variations of climate, and here was a durable pro- 
tection against the weather. But far more than this. He had become 
morally naked, destitute of that peace of conscience which is an impen- 
etrable shield against the shame of being blamed and the fear of being 
punished ; and the coats of skin were a faithful emblem and a mani- 
fest guarantee of those robes of righteousness which were hereafter 
to be provided for the penitent in default of that original righteousness 
which he had lost by transgression. And, finally, there is something 
remarkable in the material out of which the coats were made. They 
were most likely obtained by the death of animals ; and as they do not 
appear yet to have been slain for food, some have been led to conjec- 
ture that they were offered in sacrifice, — slain in prefiguration of that 
subsequent availing sacrifice which was to take away sin. It is the 
safer course, however, to leave the origin of sacrifice an open question. 
Scripture does not intimate that the skins were obtained in consequence 
of sacrifice ; and apart from the presumption derived from these skins, 
it seems to trace the origin of sacrifice to the act of Habel recorded in 
the next chapter. 

This leads us to a law, which we find frequently exhibited in Sacred 
Scripture, that some events are recorded without any connection or 
significance apparent on the surface of the narrative, while at the same 
time they betoken a greater amount of spiritual knowledge than we 
are wont to ascribe to the age in which they occurred. The bare fact 
which the writer states, being looked at with our eyes, may have no 




THE JUDGMENT. 

significance. But Regarded, as it ought to be, with the eyes of the 
narrator, cognizant oKall that he has to record up to his own time, it 
becomes pregnant with a new meaning, which would not otherwise have 
been discovered. Even this, however, may not exhaust the import of 
a passage contained in an inspired writing. To arrive at the full sense 
it may need to be contemplated with the eyes of the Holy Spirit, con- 
scious of all that is to become matter of revelation to the end of time. 
It will then stand forth in all the comprehensiveness of meaning which 
its relation to the whole body of revealed truth imparts, and under the 
guise of an every-day matter-of-fact will convey some of the sublimest 
aspects of divine truth. Hence the subsequent scripture, which is the 
language of the Holy Spirit, may aid us in penetrating the hidden 
meaning of an earlier part of revelation. 

God is the prime mover in this matter. The mercy of God alone 
is the source of pardon, of the mode in which he may pardon and yet 
be just, and of the power by which the sinner may be led to accept it 
with penitence and gratitude. In the brevity of the narrative the re- 
sults only are noted ; namely, the intimation and the earnest of pardon 
on the side of God, and the feelings and doings of faith and repentance 
on the side of the parents of mankind. What indications God may 
have given by the impressive figure of sacrifice or otherwise of the 
penalty being paid by another for the sinner, as a necessary condition 
of forgiveness, we are not here informed, simply because those for 
whom a written record was necessary would learn it more fully at a 
subsequent stage of the narrative. This suggests two remarks impor- 
tant for interpretation : 1st. This document is written by one who omits 
many things done and said to primeval man, because they are unneces- 
sary for those for whom he writes, or because the principles they in- 
volve will come forward in a more distinct form in a future part of his 
work. This practice speaks for Moses being not the mere collector, 
but the composer of the documents contained in Genesis, out of such 
preexistent materials as may have come to his hand or his mind. 2d. 
We are not to import into the narrative a doctrine or institution in all 
the development it may have received at the latest period of revelation. 
This would be contrary to the manner in which God was wont to teach 
man. That concrete form of a great principle, which comported with 
the infantile state of the early mind, is first presented. The germ 
planted in the opening, fertile mind, springs forth and grows. The rev- 
elations and institutions of God grow with it in compass and grandeur. 
The germ was truth fitted for babes ; the full-grown tree is only the 



GEK in. 22-24. 135 

same truth expanded in the advancing development of men and things. 
They equally err who stretch the past to the measure of the present, 
and who judge either the past or the future by the standard of the 
present. WeLUmeaning but inconsiderate critics have gone to both 
extremes. 



XVII. THE EXECUTION. — Gen. iii. 22-24. 

24. MIS Kerub ; a*D in Aram, carve, plough ; Pers. grip, grasp. 
This word occurs about eighty-seven times in the Hebrew scriptures ; 
in sixty of which it refers to carved or embroidered figures ; in twenty- 
two to the living being in the vision of Ezekiel (Ezek. x) ; in two 
figuratively to the king of Tyre (Ezek. xxviii. 14, 16) ; in two to a 
being on which the Lord is poetically described as riding (2 Sam. xxii. 
11 ; Ps. xviii. 11) ; and in the present passage unequivocally to real 
and well-known beings. The root is not otherwise extant in Hebrew 
proper. But from the class of actions to which it refers, and from a 
review of the statements of Scripture concerning these creatures, we 
are led to the following conclusions : 

1st. The cherubim are real creatures, and not mere symbols. In 
the narrative of the fall they are introduced as real into the scenes of 
reality. Their existence is assumed as known ; for God is said to 
place or station the cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden. The 
representation of a cherub too in vision, as part of a symbolic figure, 
implies a corresponding reality (Ezek. x. 14). A symbol itself points 
to a reality. 

2d. They are afterwards described as living creatures, especially in 
the visions of Ezekiel (i. 10). This seems to arise, not from their 
standing at the highest stage of life, which the term does not denote, 
but from the members of the various animals, which enter into their 
variously-described figure. Among these appear the faces of the man, 
the lion, the ox, and the eagle, of which a cherubic form had one, two 
or four (Ex. xxv. 20 ; Ezek. xli. 18, i. 16). They had, besides, wings, 
in number two or four (Ex. xxv. 20 ; 1 Kings vi. 27 ; Ezek. i. G). And 
they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides 
(Ezek. i. 8, x. 8). Ezekiel also describes their feet as being straight, 
and having the sole like that of a calf. They sometimes appear too 
with their bodies, hands, wings, and even accompanying wheels fall of 
eyes (Ezek. i. 18, x. 12). The variety in the figuration of the cher- 



136 THE EXECUTION. 

ubim is owing to the variety of aspects in which they stand, and of 
offices or services they have to perform in the varying posture of 
affairs. This figuration is evidently symbolic. For the real being has 
not a varying number or order of its constituent parts in the same 
stage of its existence, though it may be readily represented by a diver- 
sity of symbols, according to the diversity of the circumstances in which 
it appears, and of operations it has to perform. The figuration is 
merely intended to shadow forth its nature and office in sensible forms 
to those who have not entered the spiritual world. 

3d. The cherubim are intelligent beings. This is indicated by their 
form, movement, and conduct. In their visible appearance the human 
form predominates : " They had the likeness of a man " (Ezek. i. 5). 
The human face is in front, and has therefore the principal place. The 
" hands of a man " determine the erect posture, and therefore the 
human form of the body. The parts of other animal forms are only 
accessory, and serve to mark the possession of qualities which are not 
prominent in man. The lion indicates the active and destructive 
powers ; the ox, the patient and productive ; the eagle denotes rapid 
motion, with which the wings coincide, and quick sight with which the 
many eyes accord ; and the man signifies reason, which rationalizes 
all these otherwise physical qualities. 

The four faces indicate powers of observation that sweep the whole 
horizon. The straight feet, with soles like those of a calf, mark an 
elasticity of step appertaining only to beings unaffected by the force of 
gravitation. Their motion, " straight forward," combined with the four 
faces, and the wheel within a wheel going according to its quarters, 
points to a capacity of moving in any direction without turning by the 
mere impulse of the will. The intelligence of their conduct will 
appear from the nature of the duties they have to discharge. 

4th. Their special office seems to he intellectual and potential rather 
than moral. They have to do with the physical more than the moral 
aspect of being. Hence they stand related, on the one side, to God, as 
c^n'b^ the Everlasting, the God of omnipotence ; and, on the other, to 
the universe of created things, in its material, animal, and intellectual 
departments, and to the general administration of the divine will in this 
comprehensive sphere. The radical meanings of the terms carve, 
plough, grasp, point to the potential. The hand symbolizes intelligent 
agency. The multiplicity of eyes denotes many-sided intelligence. 
The number four is evidently normal and characteristic. It marks 
their relation to the cosmos — universe or system of created things. 



GEN. HI. 22-24. 137 

5th. Their place of ministry is about the throne, and in the presence 
of the Almighty. Accordingly, where he manifests himself in a stated 
place, and with all the solemnity of a court, there they generally 
appear. 

6th. Their special functions correspond with these indications of 
their nature and place. They are stationed at the east of the garden 
of Eden, where God had condescended to walk with man before his 
fall, and where he still lingers on earth to hold communion with man, 
for the purpose of mercy, and their business is to keep the way of the 
tree of life. They are figured in the most holy place, which was 
appropriated to the divine presence, and constructed after the pattern 
seen in the mount. They stand on the mercy-seat, where God sits to 
rule his people, and they look down with intelligent wonder on the 
mysteries of redemption. In the vision of the likeness of the glory of 
God vouchsafed to Ezekiel, they appear under the expanse on which 
rests the throne of God, and beside the wheels which move as they 
move. And when God is represented as in movement for the execu- 
tion of his judgments, the physical elements and the spiritual essences 
are alike described as the vehicles of his irresistible progress (Ps. 
xviii. 11). All these movements are mysteries to us, while we are 
in a world of sense. "We cannot comprehend the relation of the spir- 
itual and the physical. But of this we may be assured, that material 
things are at bottom centres of multiform forces, or fixed springs 
of power, to which the Everlasting Potentate has given a local habita- 
tion and a name, and therefore cognate with spiritual beings of free 
power, and consequently manageable by them. 

7th. The cherubim seem to be officially distinct from angels or mes- 
sengers who go upon special errands to a distance from the presence- 
chamber of the Almighty. It is possible that they are also to be dis- 
tinguished in function from the seraphim and the living beings of the 
Apocalypse, who like them appear among the attendants in the court 
of heaven. 

22. And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as 
one of us to know good and evil : and now lest lie put forth 
bis hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for 
ever. 23. Then the Lord God sent him forth from the gar- 
den of Eden, to till the soil from which he was taken. 24. So 
he drove out the man ; and he placed at the east of the garden 
18 



138 THE EXECUTION. 

of Eden the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned 
around, to keep the way of the tree of life. § 3. 

Here we enter upon the record of the steps taken to carry into 
effect the forfeiture of life by man, consequent upon his wilful trans- 
gression of the divine command. 

22^ As one of us. This is another indication of the plurality in 
unity which is evidently inherent in the Eternal Spirit. It is still 
more significant than the expression of concert in the creation of man, 
as it cannot be explained by anything short of a personal distinction. 

Behold, the man is become as one of us to know good and evil. We 
are now prepared to understand the nature of the two trees which were 
in the midst of the garden. The tree of the knowledge of good and 
evil effected a change, not in the physical constitution of man, but in 
his mental experience, — in his knowledge of good and evil. There do 
not appear to have been any seeds of death, — any poisonous or malig- 
nant power in the tree. " The woman saw that the tree was good for 
food, and likely to the eyes," as well as a tree to be desired to make 
one wise. Neither does it appear that the virtue of making wise on 
the particular point of moral distinctions lay in the digestion of its 
fruit when received into the stomach. The natural effect of food is on 
the body, not on the understanding. The moral effect lay rather in 
the conduct of man in regard to the tree, as a thing prohibited. The 
result of his conduct, whether in the way of obedience or disobedience 
to the divine command, was to be the knowledge of good and evil. If 
man had obeyed, he would have come to this knowledge in a legiti- 
mate way. For he would have perceived that distrust of God and 
disobedience to his will, as they were externally presented to his view 
in the suggestions of the tempter, were evil ; and that confidence and 
obedience, internally experienced in himself in defiance of such sug- 
gestions, were good. And this was the germ of the knowledge of good 
and evil. But, by disregarding the express injunction of his Maker 
with respect to this tree, he attained to the knowledge of good and 
evil in an unlawful and fatal way. He learned immediately that he 
himself was the guilty party, whereas, before, he was free from guilt ; 
and thus became aware, in his own person and to his own condemna- 
tion, of good and evil, as distinct and opposite qualities. 

This view of the tree is in accordance with all the intimations of 
Scripture. 1st. The terms in which it is prohibited are, " Of the tree 



GEN. III. 22-24. 139 

of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat ; for in the day 
thou eatest of it, die surely shalt thou." Here it is important to mark 
the consequence which is pointed out as flowing from the eating of it. 
It is not, Thou shalt know good and evil by any physical virtue of the 
tree, a process by which knowledge comes not at all ; but, " Thou shalt 
surely die." Now, this is not any physical result of the fruit being 
received into the system, since man did not die for centuries after, but 
a penal result, in fact, the awful sanction of that divine command by 
which man's probation was to be accomplished. 2d. The points brought 
out by the serpent are to the same effect. He suggests that God had 
not given permission to eat of every tree of the garden. There was 
some reserve. This reserve is an injury to man, which he makes out 
by denying that death is the consequence of eating of the tree reserved, 
and asserting that special benefits, such as the opening of the eyes, and 
being as God in knowing good and evil, would follow. In both of 
these statements there is equivocation. Death is not indeed the natural, 
but it is the legal consequence of disobedience. The eyes of them both 
were opened, and they became like God in knowing good and evil ; 
but, in both instances, to their own shame and confusion, instead of 
their glory and honor. They saw that they were " naked," and they 
were " ashamed " and " afraid." They knew good and evil ; but they 
knew the evil to be present with them, and the good to have departed 
from them. 3d. The interview of God with the culprits is also in 
keeping with the same view. The question to the man is, " Who told 
thee that thou wast naked ? Hast thou eaten of the tree of which I 
commanded thee not to eat ? " Mark the tenor of this question. It is 
not, Hast thou eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil ? 
but, " of which I commanded thee not to eat ; " by which it is indicated 
that, not the physical character of the tree, but the moral character of 
the action, is the point of the interrogatory. 

The tree, then, was the ordained occasion of man's becoming as God 
in knowing good and evil. He had now reached the second, or exper- 
imental lesson in morals. When God gave him the theoretical lesson 
in the command, he expected that the practical one would follow. He 
now says, " Behold the man is become as one of us, to know good and 
evil." In the style of his word he notes the result, without marking 
the disobedience of man as the means. This is understood from the 
circumstances. Man is therefore guilty, and the law must be vindi- 
cated. 

Hence, it is added, Lest he put forth his hand and take also of the 



140 THE EXECUTION. 

tree of life, and eat and live for ever. This sentence is completed by 
an act, not a word, as we shall see in the next verse. Measures must 
be taken to prevent his access to this tree, now that he has incurred 
the penalty of death. 

From this sentence it follows that the tree of life must have had 
some virtue by which the human frame was to be kept free from the 
decrepitude of age, or the decay that terminates in death. Its name, 
the tree of life, accords with this conclusion. Only on such a ground 
could exclusion from it be made the penalty of disobedience, and the 
occasion of death. Thus also may we meet and answer all the difficul- 
ties which physiology presents to the immortality of unfallen man. 
We have it on record that there was an herbal virtue in paradise capa- 
ble of counteracting the effects of the wear and tear of the animal 
frame. This confirms our account of the tree of the knowledge of 
good and evil. Death, which, it is to be remembered, is, to a moral 
and responsible being, in a comprehensive sense, exclusion from the 
blessings of conscious existence, and preeminently from that of the 
divine complacence, was not the physical effect of its fruit being eaten, 
but the penal consequence of a forbidden act. And this consequence 
is brought about by a special judicial process, recorded in the next 
verse. 

The two trees stand related to one another in a way that touches the 
very centre of man's moral being. "Do this and live " is the funda- 
mental dictum of the moral law. Its implied counterpart is, " If thou 
do it not, thou shalt die." The act of disobedience is evidently deci- 
sive for the whole conduct, character, and relation to God. It there- 
fore necessarily forfeits that life which consists in the favor of God and 
all consequent blessings. The two trees correspond with the condition 
and the benefit in this essential covenant of law. The one is the test 
of man's obedience, or disobedience ; the other, the benefit which is 
retained by obedience and lost by disobedience. Man fails in obedi- 
ence, and loses the blessing. Henceforth both the legal and the bene- 
ficial parts of the covenant must come from a higher source to all that 
are saved. Christ bestows both the one and the other by his obedience 
and by his Spirit. In the old form of the covenant of grace, the pass- 
over typifies the one, and circumcision the other ; in the new, the 
Lord's Supper and baptism have a similar import. These all, from 
first to last, betoken the two essential parts of salvation, redemption, 
and regeneration. This is a clear example of the unity and constancy 
which prevail in the works of God. 



GEN. III. 22-24. 141 

It is evident that the idea of immortality is familiar to the early 
chapters of Genesis. The primeval command itself implies it. Mor- 
tality, moreover, applies to the tt%a, the organic living body ; not to the 
particles of matter in that body, nor to the d^ri mau35, breath of life 
which came from God. It means not annihilation, but dissolution. 
Still further, the first part of death is exclusion from the tree of life, 
which takes place on the very day of disobedience. This indicates its 
nature. It is not annihilation of the spiritual essence, which does not 
in fact take place, but the withdrawal from it of the blessings and 
enjoyments in communion with God of which it is capable. And, 
lastly, the whole tenor of the narrative is, that death is a penalty for 
transgression ; whereas annihilation is not a penalty, but a release from 
the doom of perdition. Accordingly, the tempter is not annihilated, but 
left to bear his doom ; a'nd so man's existence is perpetuated under 
partial privation, — the emblem and earnest of that death which consists 
in the total privation of life. Death is, no doubt, in its primary mean- 
ing, the dissolution of the living body. But even in the execution of 
the primeval sentence it begins to expand into that compass of mean- 
ing which all the great primitives of the scriptural language sooner or 
later express. Earth, sky, good, evil, life, and death are striking spec- 
imens of this elasticity of signification. Hence we perceive that the 
germs of the doctrine of the immortality of the soul lie even in these 
primeval documents. And more we could not expect, unless we were 
to concentrate the whole fulness of revelation on this subject into its 
opening pages. 

23. In consequence of man's disobedience the tree of life is with- 
drawn from the reach of man as a forfeited boon, and the dissolution 
of the present life allowed to take place according to the laws of na- 
ture, still remaining in force in regard to other animated beings ; aided, 
indeed, and accelerated in their operation, by the sinful abuse of human 
passions. And thus the expression, " in the day thou eatest thereof 
thou shalt die," receives its simple application. It is a conditional 
sentence, pronounced antecedently as a warning to the responsible 
party. On the very day of transgression it becomes legally valid 
against him, and the first step towards its regular execution in the 
ordinary course of things is taken. This step is his exclusion from the 
tree of life. This is effected by sending man out of the garden into 
the common, to till the soil whence he was taken. 

24. So he drove out the man. This expresses the banishment of 
man from the garden as a judicial act. While he is left to the fruits 



142 THE EXECUTION. 

of his labor for the means of subsistence until his return to the dust, 
his access to the source of perpetual life and vigor is effectually barred 
by a guard stationed east of the garden, where was no doubt its only 
entrance, consisting of the cherubim and the flame of a sword waving 
in all directions. The flaming sword is the visible form of the sword 
of justice, repelling the transgressors from the seat and source of hap- 
piness and life. The cherubim, who are here mentioned as well-known 
objects, whose figure does not require description, are the ministers of 
the divine presence and judgment, — of his presence which was not 
entirely withdrawn from man ; and of his judgment, by which he was 
excluded from the garden of delight. 

There is unspeakable mercy here in every respect for the erring 
race. This present life in the flesh was now tainted with sin, and 
impregnated with the seeds of the curse, about to spring forth into an 
awful growth of moral and physical evil. It is not worth preserving 
for itself. It is not in any way desirable that such a dark confusion 
of life and death in one nature should be perpetuated. Hence there is 
mercy as well as judgment in the exclusion of man from that tree 
which could have only continued the carnal, earthly, sensual and even 
devilish state of his being. Let it remain for a season, until it be seen 
whether the seed of spiritual life will come to birth and growth, and 
then let death come and put a final end to the old man. 

But, still further, God does not annihilate the garden or its tree of 
life. Annihilation does not seem to be his way. It is not the way of 
that omniscient One who sees the end from the beginning, of that in- 
finite Wisdom that can devise and create a self-working, self-adjusting 
universe of things and events. On the other hand, he sets his cheru- 
bim to keep the way of the tree of life. This paradise, then, and its 
tree of life are in safe keeping. They are in reserve for those who will 
become entitled to them after an intervening period of trial and victory, 
and they will reappear in all their pristine glory and in all their beau- 
tiful adaptedness to the high-born and new-born perfection of man. The 
slough of that serpent nature which has been infused into man will fall 
off, at least from the chosen number who take refuge in the mercy of 
God ; and in all the freshness and freedom of a heaven-born nature 
will they enter into all the originally congenial enjoyments that were 
shadowed forth in their pristine bloom in that first scene of human 
bliss. 

We have now gone over the prelude to the history of man. It con- 
sists of three distinct events : the absolute creation of the heavens and 



GEN. III. 22-24. 143 

the earth, contained in one verse ; the last creation, in which man him- 
self came into being, embracing the remainder of the first chapter; and 
the history of the first pair to the fall, recorded in the second and third 
chapters. The first two fall into one, and reveal the invisible everlast- 
ing Elohim coming forth out of the depths of his inscrutable eternity, 
and manifesting himself to man in the new character of Jehovah, the 
author and perpetuator of a universe of being, and preeminently of 
man, a type and specimen of the rational order of beings. Whenever 
moral agents come into existence, and wherever they come into con- 
tact, there must be law, covenant, or compact. Hence the command is 
laid upon man as the essential prerequisite to his moral deportment ; 
and Jehovah appears further as the vindicator of law, the keeper of 
covenant, the performer of promise. Man, being instructed by him 
in the fundamental principle of all law, namely, the right of the Crea- 
tor over the creature, and the independence of each creature in relation 
to every other, takes the first step in moral conduct. But it is a false 
one, violating this first law of nature and of God in both its parts. 
" Thus by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin." 
Hence the prospect of man's future history is clouded, and it cannot be 
darker than it afterwards turns out to be. But still it is tinged even 
in its early dawn with some rays of heavenly hope. The Lord God 
has held out signals of mercy to the tempted and fallen pair. The 
woman and the man have not been slow to acknowledge this, and to 
show symptoms of returning faith and repentance. And though they 
have been shut out of the garden, yet that region of bliss and its tree 
of life are not swept out of existence, but, in the boundless mercy of 
God, reserved in safe keeping for those who shall become heirs of 
glory, honor, and immortality. 

Let it be observed that we here stand on the broad ground of our 
common humanity. From this wide circumference Scripture never 
recedes. Even when it recounts the fortunes of a single individual, 
family, or nation, its eye and its interest extend to the whole race ; and it 
only dwells on the narrower circle of men and things as the potential 
spring of nascent, growing, and eternal life and blessing to the whole 
race. Let us endeavor to do justice to this ancient record, in the calm 
and constant grandeur and catholicity of its revelations concerning the 
ways of God with man. 



SECTION IV. — THE FAMILY OF ADAM. 



XVm. CAIN AND ABEL. —Gen. iv. 1-16. 

1. "p}5 Qain, spear-shaft, and Frtjr set up, establish, gain, buy, contain 
the biliteral root )p set up, erect, gain. The relations of root-worcis 
are not confined to the narrow rules of our common etymology, but 
really extend to such instinctive usages as the unlettered speaker will 
invent or employ. A full examination of the Hebrew tongue leads to 
the conclusion that a biliteral root lies at the base of many of those 
triliterals that consist of two firm consonants and a third weaker one 
varying in itself and its position. Thus 3B? and sio. So 'p.g and S"i3£ 
grow from one root. 

2. bail Habel, breath, vapor. 

3. riH3?2 gift, offering, tribute. In contrast with rDT, it means a 
bloodless offering. 

7. natarj sin, sin-penalty, sin-offering, yyi lie, couch as an animal. 
16. Tis Nod, flight, exile ; v. flee. 

IY. 1. And the man knew Eve his wife ; and she conceived 
and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. 
2. And she added to bear his brother Habel : and Habel be- 
came a keeper of sheep, and Cain a tiller of the soil. 3. And 
it came to pass at the end of days that Cain brought of the 
fruit of the soil an offering unto the Lord. 4. And Habel 
brought he also of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat 
thereof: and the Lord had respect unto Habel and to his offer- 
ing. 5. But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect : 
and Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. 6. And 
the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth ? and why is thy 
countenance fallen ? 7. If thou do well, shalt thou not be 
accepted ? and if thou do not well, at the door is sin lying : 



GEK IV. 1-16. 145 

and unto thee shall be his desire, and thou slialt rule over him. 
8. And Cain talked with Habel his brother : and it came to 
pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against 
Habel his brother, and slew him. 9. And the Lord said unto 
Cain, Where is Habel, thy brother ? And he said, I know not : 
am I my brother's keeper ? 10. And he said, What hast thou 
done ? The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from 
the soil. 11. And now cursed art thou from the soil which 
hath opened its mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy 
hand. 12. When thou tillest the soil, it shall not add to yield 
its strength to thee : a vagabond and a fugitive shalt thou be 
in the land. 13. And Cain said unto the Lord, Great is my 
iniquity above bearing. 14. Behold, thou hast driven me out 
this day from the face of the soil, and from thy face shall I be 
hid : and I shall be a vagabond and a fugitive in the land, and 
it shall be that any one that findeth me shall slay me. 15. 
And the Lord said unto him, Therefore on any one slaying 
Cain, he shall be avenged seven-fold. And the Lord gave Cain 
a sign, that no one finding him should smite him. 16. And 
Cain went out from the face of the Lord, and dwelt in the land 
of Nod, on the east of Eden. 

This chapter is a continuation of the second document. Yet it 
is distinguished from the previous part of it by the use of the name 
Jehovah alone, and, in one instance, Elohim alone, to designate the 
Supreme Being. This is sufficient to show that distinct pieces of com- 
position are included within these documents. In the creation week 
and in the judgment, God has proved himself an originator of being 
and a keeper of his word, and, therefore, the significant personal name 
Jehovah is ready on the lips of Eve and from the pen of the writer. 
The history of fallen man now proceeds. The first family comes under 
our notice. 

1. Here the first husband and wife become father and mother. This 

new relation must be deeply interesting to both, but at first peculiarly 

so to the mother. Now was begun the fulfilment of all the intimations 

she had received concerning her seed. She was to have conception 

19 



146 CAIN AND ABEL. 

and sorrow multiplied. But she was to be the mother of all living. 
And her seed was to bruise the serpent's head. All these recollec- 
tions added much to the intrinsic interest of becoming a mother. Her 
feelings are manifested in the name given to her son and the reason 
assigned for it. She " bare Cain and said, I hare gained a man from 
Jehovah." Cain occurs only once as a common noun, and is rendered 
by the Seventy S6pv, spear-shaft. The primitive meaning of the root is 
to set up, or to erect, as a cane, a word which comes from the root ; 
then it means to create, make one's own, and is applied to the Crea- 
tor (Gen. xiv. 19) or the parent (Deut. xxxii. 6). Hence the word 
here seems to denote a thing gained or achieved, a figurative expres- 
sion for a child born. The gaining or bearing of the child is therefore 
evidently the prominent thought in Eve's mind, as she takes the child's 
name from this. This serves to explain the sentence assigning the 
reason for the name. If the meaning had been, " I have gained a man, 
namely, Jehovah," then the child would have been called Jehovah. If 
Jehovah had even been the emphatic word, the name would have been 
a compound of Jehovah, and either tiro man, or nij2 qain, such as 
Ishiah or Coniah. But the name Cain proves Vtag I have gained 
to be the emphatic word, and therefore the sentence is to be rendered 
"I have gained (borne) a man (with the assistance) of Jehovah." 

The word " man " probably intimates that Eve fully expected her 
son to grow to the stature and maturity of her husband. If she had 
daughters before, and saw them growing up to maturity, this would 
explain her expectation, and at the same time give a new significance 
and emphasis to her exclamation, "I have gained a man (heretofore 
only women) from Jehovah." It would heighten her ecstasy still more 
if she expected this to be the very seed that should bruise the ser- 
pent's head. 

Eve is under the influence of pious feelings. She has faith in God, 
and acknowledges him to be the author of the precious gift she has 
received. Prompted by her grateful emotion, she confesses her faith. 
She also employs a new and near name to designate her maker. In 
the dialogue with the tempter she had used the word God (aVi'Vx). 
But now she adopts Jehovah. In this one word she hides a treasure 
of comfort. " He is true to his promise. He has not forgotten me. 
He is with me now again. He will never leave me nor forsake me. 
He will give me the victory." And who can blame her if she verily 
expected that this would be the promised deliverer who should bruise 
the serpent's head ? 



GEN. IV. 1-16. 147 

2. His brother Habel. Plabel means breath, vanity. Does a sense 
of the vanity of earthly things grow in the minds of our first parents ? 
Has the mother found her sorrow multiplied ? Has she had many 
daughters between these sons ? Is there something delicate and frag- 
ile in the appearance of Habel ? Has Cain disappointed a mother's 
hopes ? Some of all these thoughts may have prompted the name. 
There is something remarkable in the phrase " his brother Habel." It 
evidently points with touching simplicity to the coming outrage that 
was to destroy the peace and purity of the first home. 

The two primitive employments of men were the agricultural and 
the pastoral. Here is the second allusion to some use which was made 
of animals soon after the fall. Coats of skin were provided for the 
first pair ; and now we have Habel keeping sheep. In the garden of 
Eden, where the tree of life was accessible, an exclusively vegetable 
diet was designed for man. Whether this continued after the fall, we 
are not informed. It is certain that man had dominion over the whole 
animal kingdom. It can scarcely be doubted that the outer coverings 
of animals were used for clothing. Animals are presently to be em- 
ployed for sacrifice. It is not beyond the bounds of probability that 
animal food may have been used before the flood, as a partial compen- 
sation for the want of the tree of life, which may have been fitted to 
supply all the defects of vegetable and even animal fare in sustaining 
the human frame in its primeval vigor. 

Man in his primitive state, then, was not a mere gatherer of acorns, 
a hunter, or a nomad. He began with horticulture, the highest form 
of rural life. After the fall he descended to the culture of the field 
and the tending of cattle ; but still he had a home, and a settled mode 
of living. It is only by a third step that he degenerates to the wan- 
dering and barbarous state of existence. And only by the predom- 
inance of might over right, the selfish lust of power, and the clever 
combinations of rampant ambition, comes that form of society in which 
the highest state of barbaric civilization and the low est depth of bondage 
and misery meet. 

3. At the end of days. This may denote the end of the week, of the 
year, or of some longer period. The season of the year was probably 
the ingathering, when the fruits of the earth and the firstlings of the 
flock would come in, and when it was not unnatural for the first family 
to celebrate with a subdued thankfulness the anniversary of their cre- 
ation. And the present occasion seems to have been the time when 
Cain and Habel, have arrived at the years of discretion and self- 



148 CAIN AND ABEL. 

dependence, solemnly come forward with their first voluntary offerings 
to the Lord. Hitherto they may have come under their parents, who 
were then the actual offerers. Now they come on their own account. 

Here, accordingly, we ascend from the secular to the eternal. We 
find a church in the primeval family. If Cain and Habel offer to 
God, we may imagine it was the habit of their parents, and has de- 
scended to them with all the sanction of parental example. But we 
may not venture to affirm this in all its extent. Parental example 
they no doubt had, in some respects ; but whether Adam and Eve had 
vet ascended so far from the valley of repentance and humiliation as 
to make bold to offer anything to the Lord, admits of question. Right 
feeling in the first offenders would make the confidence of faith very 
slow of growth. It is even more natural for their children, being one 
remove from the actual transgressors, to make the first essay to ap- 
proach God with an offering. 

Cain brings of the fruits of the soil. "We cannot say this was the 
mere utterance of nature giving thanks to the Creator for his benefits, 
and acknowledging that all comes from him, and all is due to him. 
History, parental instruction, and possibly example, were also here to 
give significance to the act. The offering is also made to Jehovah, the 
author of nature, of revelation, and now, in man's fallen state, of 
grace. There is no intimation in this verse of the state of Cain's 
feelings towards God. And there is only a possible hint, in the " coats 
of skin," in regard to the outward form of offering that would be 
acceptable. We must not anticipate the result. 

4, 5. And Habel brought Habel's offering differs from that of his 
brother in outward form. It consists of the firstlings of his flock. 
These were slain ; for their fat is offered. Blood was therefore shed, 
and life taken away. To us who are accustomed to partake of animal 
food, there may appear nothing strange here. We may suppose that 
each brother offered that which came to hand out of the produce of his 
own industry. But let us ascend to that primeval time when the fruit 
tree and the herb bearing seed were alone assigned to man for food, 
and we must feel that there is something new here. Still let us wait 
for the result. 

And the Lord had respect unto Habel and his offering, but not 
unto Cain. We have now the simple facts before us. Let us hear 
the inspired comment : " Ht'crrei, by faith Abel offered unto God 
irXetova Sva-iav a more excellent sacrifice than Cain" (Heb. xi. 4). 
There was, then, clearly an internal moral distinction in the intention 



GEN. IV. 1-16. 149 

or disposition of the offerers. Habel had faith, — that confiding in God 
which is not bare and cold, but is accompanied with confession of 
sin, and a sense of gratitude for his mercy, and followed by obe- 
dience to his will. Cain had not this faith. He may have had a faith 
in the existence, power, and bounty of God ; but it wanted that peni- 
tent returning to God, that humble acceptance of his mercy, and sub- 
mission to his will, which constitute true faith. It must be admitted 
the faith of the offerer is essential to the acceptableness of the offering, 
even though other things were equal. 

But, in this case, there is a difference in the things offered. The 
one is a vegetable offering, the other an animal ; the one a presenta- 
tion of things without life, the other a sacrifice of life. Hence the 
latter is called irXdwv Bvcria ; there is more in it than in the former. 
The two offerings are therefore expressive of the different kinds of 
faith in the offerers. They are the excogitation and exhibition in 
outward symbol of the faith of each. The fruit of the soil offered to 
God is an acknowledgment that the means of this earthly life are due 
to him. This expresses the barren faith of Cain, but not the living 
faith of Habel. The latter has entered deeply into the thought that 
life itself is forfeited to God by transgression, and that, only by an act 
of mercy can the Author of life restore it to the penitent, trusting, sub- 
missive, loving heart. He has pondered on the intimations of relent- 
ing mercy and love that have come from the Lord to the fallen race, 
and cast himself upon them without reserve. He slays the animal of 
which he is the lawful owner, as a victim, thereby acknowledging that 
his life is due for sin ; he offers the life of the animal, not as though it 
were of equal value with his own, but in token that another life, equiv- 
alent to his own, is due to justice if he is to go free by the as yet 
inscrutable mercy of God. 

Such a thought as this is fairly deducible from the facts on the 
surface of our record. It seems necessary in order to account for the 
first slaying of an animal under an economy where vegetable diet was 
alone permitted. We may go further. It is hard to suppose the 
slaying of an animal acceptable, if not previously allowed. The coats 
of skin seem to involve a practical allowance of the killing of animals 
for certain purposes. Thus we arrive at the conclusion that there was 
more in the animal than in the vegetable offering, and that more essen- 
tial to the full expression of a right faith in the mercy of God, without 
borrowing the light of future revelation. Hence the nature of ^label's 
sacrifice was the index of the genuineness of his faith. And the Lord 



150 CAIN AND ABEL. 

had respect unto him and his offering ; thereby intimating that his 
heart was right, and his offering suitable to the expression of his feel- 
ings. This finding is also in keeping with the manner of Scripture, 
which takes the outward act as the simple and spontaneous exponent 
of the inward feeling. The mode of testifying his respect to Habel 
was by consuming his offering with fire, or some other way equally 
open to observation. 

And Gain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. A feeling of 
resentment, and a sense of disgrace and condemnation take possession 
of Cain's breast. There is no spirit of inquiry, self-examination, prayer 
to God for light, or pardon. This shows that Cain was far from being 
in a right frame of mind. 

6, 7. Why art thou wroth ? and why is thy countenance fallen ? The 
Lord does not yet give up Cain. In great mercy he expostulates with 
him. He puts a question which implies that there is no just cause for 
his present feelings. Neither anger at his brother, because his offering 
has been accepted, nor vexation in himself, because his own has not, 
is a right feeling in the presence of the just and merciful God, who 
searches the heart. Submission, self-examination, and amendment of 
what has been wrong in his approach to God, alone benefit the oc- 
casion. To this, accordingly, the Lord directs his attention in the next 
sentence. 

If thou do well, shalt thou not he accepted^ To do welf is to retrace 
his steps, to consider his ways, and find out wherein he has been 
wrong, and to amend his offering and his intention accordingly. He 
has not duly considered the relation in which he stands to God as 
a guilty sinner, whose life is forfeited, and to whom the hand of 
mercy is held out ; and accordingly he has not felt this in offering, or 
given expression to it in the nature of his offering. Yet the Lord 
does not immediately reject him, but with longsuffering patience 
directs his attention to this, that it may be amended. And on making 
such amendment, he holds out to him the clear and certain hope 
of acceptance still. But he does more than this. As Cain seems to 
have been of a particularly hard and unheedful disposition, he com- 
pletes his expostulation, and deepens its awful solemnity, by stating 
the other alternative, both in its condition and consequence, — 

And if thou do not well, at the door is sin lying. Sin past, in its 
unrequited and unacknowledged guilt ; sin present, in its dark and 
stubborn passion and despair ; but, above all, sin future, as the growing 
habit of a soul that persists in an evil temper, and therefore must add 



GEN. IV. 1-16. 151 

iniquity unto iniquity, is awaiting thee at the door, as a crouching 
slave the bidding of his master. As one lie borrows an endless train 
of others to keep up a vain appearance of consistency, so one sin if 
not repented of and forsaken involves the dire necessity of plunging 
deeper and deeper into the gulf of depravity and retribution. This 
dread warning to Cain, expressed in the mildest and plainest terms, is 
a standing lesson written for the learning of all mankind. Let him 
who is in the wrong retract at once, and return to God with humble 
acknowledgment of his own guilt, and unreserved submission to the 
mercy of his Maker ; for to him who perseveres in sin there can be 
no hope or help. Another sentence is added to give intensity to the 
warning, — 

" And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him" 
This sentence has all the pithiness and familiarity of a proverb. It 
has been employed before, to describe part of the tribulation the wo- 
man brought upon herself by disobedience, namely, the forced subjec- 
tion of her will to that of her husband in the fallen state of humanity 
(Gen. iii. 16). It is accordingly expressive of the condition of a slave 
under the hard bondage and arbitrary caprice of a master and a tyrant. 
Cain is evidently the master. The question is, Who is the slave ? To 
whom do the pronouns " his " and " him " refer ? Manifestly, either 
to sin or to Habel. If to sin, then the meaning of the sentence is, the 
desire, the entire submission and service of sin will be yielded to thee, 
and thou wilt in fact make thyself master of it. Thy case will be no 
longer a heedless ignorance, and consequent dereliction of duty, but a 
wilful overmastering of all that comes by sin, and an unavoidable 
going on from sin to sin, from inward to outward sin, or, in specific 
terms, from wrath to murder, and from disappointment to defiance, and 
so from unrighteousness to ungodliness. This is an awful picture of his 
fatal end, if he do not instantly retreat. But it is necessary to deal 
plainly with this dogged, vindictive spirit, if by any means he may be 
brought to a right mind. 

If the pronouns be referred to Habel, the meaning will come to 
much the same thing. The desire, the forced compliance, of thy 
brother will be yielded unto thee, and thou wilt rule over him with a 
rigor and a violence that will terminate in his murder. In violating 
the ima^e of God by shedding the blood of thy brother, thou wilt be 
defying thy Maker, and fiercely rushing on to thy own perdition. 
Thus, in either case, the dark doom of sin unforsaken and unremitted 
looms fearfully in the distance. 



152 CAIN AND ABEL. 

The general reference to sin, however, seems to be the milder and 
more soothing form of expostulation. The special reference to Habel 
might only exasperate. It appears, moreover, to be far-fetched, as 
there is no allusion to his brother in the previous part of the address. 
The boldness of the figure by which Cain is represented as making 
himself master of sin, when he with reckless hand grasps at all that 
comes by sin, is not unfamiliar to Scripture. Thus the doer of wick- 
edness is described as the master of it (Eccl. viii. 8). On these 
grounds we prefer the reference to sin, and the interpretation founded 
on it. 

There are two other expositions of this difficult sentence which de- 
serve to be noticed. 1st. "And as to thy brother, unto thee shall 
be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him with all the right of the first 
born." But (1) the reference to his brother is remote ; (2) the rights 
of primogeniture are perhaps not yet established ; (3) the words do 
not express a right, but an exercise of might against right arising in a 
fallen state (Gen. iii. 16) ; (4) the Judge of all the earth is not wont 
to guarantee the prerogatives of birth to one who is in positive rebel- 
lion against him, but, on the other hand, he withdraws them from the 
unworthy to confer them on whom he will. For these reasons we con- 
ceive this exposition is to be rejected. 2d. " And unto thee shall be 
sin's desire; but thou shalt overcome it." But (1) the parallelism 
between the two members of the sentence is here neglected; (2) a 
different meaning is assigned to the words here and in Gen. iii. 16; 
(3) the connection between the sentence thus explained and what goes 
before is not clear; (4) the lesson taught is not obvious ; and (5) the 
assurance given is not fulfilled. On these grounds we cannot adopt 
this explanation. 

The above address of the Lord to Cain, expressed here perhaps only 
in its substance, is fraught with the most powerful motives that can 
bear on the mind of man. It holds out acceptance to the wrong-doer, 
if he will come with a broken heart and a corresponding expression 
of repentance before God, in the full faith that he can and will secure 
the ends of justice so that he can have mercy on the penitent. At the 
same time it points out, with all clearness and faithfulness to a soul yet 
unpractised in the depths of iniquity, the insidious nature of sin, the 
proneness of a selfish heart to sin with a high hand, the tendency of 
one sinful temper, if persisted in, to engender a growing habit of ag- 
gravated crime which ends in the everlasting destruction of the soul: 
Nothing more than this can be done by argument or reason for the 



GEN. IV. 1-16. 153 

warning of a wrong-doer. From the mouth of the Almighty these 
words must have come with all the evidence and force they were capa- 
ble of receiving. 

8. And Cain talked with Habel his brother. Cain did not act on 
the divine counsel. He did not amend his offering to God, either in 
point of internal feeling or external form. , Though one speak to him 
from heaven he will not hear. He conversed with Habel his brother. 
The topic is not stated. The Septuagint supplies the words, " Let us 
go into the field." If in walking side by side with his brother he 
touched upon the divine communication, the conference did not lead to 
any better results. If the divine expostulation failed, much more the 
human. Perhaps it only increased his irritation. When they were 
in the field, and therefore out of view, he rose up against his brother 
and slew him. The deed is done that cannot be recalled. The mo- 
tives to it were various. Selfishness, wounded pride, jealousy, and a 
guilty conscience were all at work (1 John iii. 12). Here, then, is sin 
following upon sin, proving the truth of the warning given in the 
merciful forbearance of God. 

9. Where is Habel thy brother? The interrogatory here reminds 
us of the question put to the hiding Adam, " Where art thou ? " It is 
calculated to strike the conscience. The reply is different from that 
of Adam. The sin has now advanced from hasty, incautious yielding 
to the tempter, to reiterated and deliberate disobedience. Such a sin- 
ner must take different ground. Cain, therefore, attempts to parry the 
question, apparently on the vain supposition that no eye, not even that 
of the All-seeing, was present to witness the deed. rt I know not." 
In the madness of his confusion he goes further. He disputes the 
right of the Almighty to make the demand. " Am I my brother's 
keeper ? " There is, as usual, an atom of truth mingled with the 
amazing falsehood of this surly response. No man is the absolute 
keeper of his brother, so as to be responsible for his safety when he is 
not present. This is what Cain means to insinuate. But every man 
is his brother's keeper so far that he is not himself to lay the hand of 
violence on him, nor suffer another to do so if he can hinder it. This 
sort of keeping the Almighty has a right to demand of every one, — the 
first part of it on the ground of mere justice, the second on that of love. 
But Cain's reply betrays a desperate resort to falsehood, a total es- 
trangement of feeling, a quenching of brotherly love, a predominence 
of that selfishness which freezes affection and kindles hatred. This is 
the way of Cain (Jude 11). 

20 



154 CAIN AND ABEL. 

10. What hast thou done? The Lord now charges him with his 
guilt : " The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the 
soil." In the providence of God blood has a voice crying to him to 
which he cannot but give heed. It is vain, then, to attempt conceal- 
ment. 

11, 12. The curse (Gen. ix. 25, n.) which now fell on Cain was in 
some sense retributive, as it sprang from the soil which had received 
his brother's blood. The particulars of it are the withdrawal of the 
full strength or fruitfulness of the soil from him, and the degradation 
from the state of a settled dweller in the presence of God to that of a 
vagabond in the earth. He was to be banished to a less productive 
part of the earth, removed from the presence of God and the society 
of his father and mother, and abandoned to a life of wandering and 
uncertainty. The sentence of death had been already pronounced 
upon man. 

13, 14. My iniquity is more than lean bear. To bear iniquity is in 
Hebrew phrase to undergo the punishment of it. And the prospect of 
this, as it presents itself to the eyes of Cain, is so appalling that he 
shrinks from it as intolerable. To be driven from the face of the soil, 
inhabited by the other surviving members of the human family, to an 
unknown and therefore terrible region ; to be hidden from the face of 
God, who manifested himself still to the race of Adam in their present 
abode ; to be a vagabond and a fugitive in the earth, far away from 
the land of his birth ; and to be liable to be slain in just revenge by 
any one who should find him,— such is the hard fate he sees before him. 
It is dark enough in itself, and no doubt darker still in the exaggera- 
tion which an accusing conscience conjures up to his imagination. The 
phrase, every one finding me, implies that the family of Adam had now 
become numerous. Not only sons and daughters, but their children 
and grandchildren may have been growing up when Cain was sent 
into exile. But in his present terror even an excited fancy suggested 
an enemy at every turn. 

15. The reply of the Lord is fitted to quell the troubled breast of 
Cain. Therefore. Because thy fears of what thou deservest go be- 
yond what it is my purpose to permit, I give thee assurance of freedom 
from personal violence. To be avenged seven-fold is to be avenged 
fully. Cain will no doubt receive even-handed justice from the 
Almighty. The assurance given to Cain is a sign, the nature of which 
is not further specified. 

This passage unfolds to us a mode of dealing with the first murderer 



GEN. IV. 1-16. 155 

which is at first sight somewhat difficult to be understood. But we are 
to bear in mind that the sentence of death had been already pronounced 
upon man, and therefore stood over Adam and all his posterity, Cain 
among the rest. To pronounce the same sentence therefore upon him 
for a new crime, would have been weak and unmeaning. Besides, the 
great crime of crimes was disobedience to the divine will ; and any 
particular form of crime added to that was comparatively unimportant. 
Wrong done to a creature, even of the deepest dye, was not to be com- 
pared in point of guilt with wrong done to the Creator. The grave 
element in the criminality of every social wrong is its practical disre- 
gard of the authority of the Most High. Moreover, every other sin to 
the end of time is but the development of that first act of disobedience 
to the mandate of heaven by which man fell ; and accordingly every 
penalty is summed up in that death which is the judicial consequence 
of the first act of rebellion against heaven. 

We are also to bear in mind that God still held the sword of justice 
in his own immediate hands, and had not delegated his authority to 
any human tribunal. No man was therefore clothed with any right 
from heaven to call Cain to account for the crime he had committed. 
To fall upon him with the high hand in a wilful act of private revenge, 
would be taking the law into one's own hands, and therefore a misde- 
meanor against the majesty of heaven, which the Judge of all could not 
allow to pass unpunished. It is plain that no man has an inherent 
right to inflict the sanction of a broken law on the transgressor. This 
right originally belongs to the Creator, and derivatively only to those 
whom he has intrusted with the dispensation of civil government 
according to established laws. 

Cain's offences were great and aggravated. But let us not exagger- 
ate them. He was first of all defective in the character of his faith 
and the form of his sacrifice. His carnal mind came out still more in 
the wrath and vexation he felt when his defective offering was not 
accepted. Though the Almighty condescends now to plead with him 
and warn him against persisting in impenitent silence and discontent, 
lest he should thereby only become more deeply involved in sin, he 
does not retreat, but, on the contrary, proceeds to slay his brother, in 
a fit of jealousy ; and, lastly, he rudely and falsely denies all knowledge 
of him, and all obligation to be his protector. Notwithstanding all this, 
it is still to be remembered that the sentence of death from heaven 
already hung over him. This was in the merciful order of things 
comparatively slow of execution in its full extent, but at the same time 



156 CAIN AND ABEL. 

absolutely certain in the end. The aggravation of the first crime of 
man by the sins of self-will, sullenness, envy, fratricide, and defiant 
falsehood, was but the natural fruit of that beginning of disobedience. 
It is accordingly visited by additional tokens of the divine displeasure, 
which manifest themselves in this life, and are mercifully calculated to 
warn Cain still further to repent. 

Cain's guilt seems now to have been brought home in some measure 
to his conscience ; and he not only stands aghast at the sentence of ban- 
ishment from the divine presence, but instinctively trembles, lest, upon 
the principle of retributive justice, whoever meets him may smite him 
to the death, as he had done his brother. The longsuffering of God, 
however, interferes to prevent such a catastrophe, and even takes steps 
to relieve the trembling culprit from the apprehension of a violent 
death. This leads us to understand that God, having formed a pur- 
pose of mercy toward the human family, was sedulously bent upon 
exercising it even towards the murderer of a brother. Hence he does 
not punish his repeated crimes by immediate death, which would have 
defeated his design of giving him a long day of grace and opportunity 
to reflect, repent, return to God, and even yet offer in faith a typical 
atonement by blood for his sin. Thus the prohibition to slay him is 
sanctioned by a seven-fold, that is, an ample and complete vengeance, 
and a sign of protection mercifully vouchsafed to him. The whole 
dealing of the Almighty was calculated to have a softening, conscience- 
awakening, and hope-inspiring effect on the murderer's heart. 

16. The presence of the Lord seems to have been at the entrance of 
the garden where the cherubim were stationed. There, probably, the 
children of men still lingered in faith and hope before the Lord, whom 
they still regarded as their Maker and merciful Saviour. They 
acknowledged his undeserved goodness in the form of sacrifice. The 
retreat of Cain from the scene of parental affection, of home associa- 
tions, and of divine manifestation, must have been accompanied with 
many a deep, unuttered pang of regret and remorse. But he has deeply 
and repeatedly transgressed, and he must bear the consequence. Such 
is sin. Many a similar deed of cruelty and bloodshed might the sacred 
writer have recorded in the after-history of man. But it is the man- 
ner of Scripture to note the first example, and then to pass over in 
silence its subsequent repetitions, unless when a particular transaction 
has an important bearing on the ways of God with man. 



GEN. IV. 17-24. 157 



XIX. THE LINE OF CAIN. — Gen. iv. 17-24. 

17. ?p3ft Chanok, initiation, instruction. 

18. W ' Irad, fleet as the wild ass, citizen. ^vra Mechujael, 
smitten of El, or life of El. "bxti^rra Methushael, man of El, or man 
ashed. Tp?& Lemek, man of prayer, youth. 

19. STjs 'Adah, beauty. rtbx Tsillah, shade or tinkling. 

20. ^aj Jabal, stream, leader of cattle, produce, the walker or wcm- 
rferer. ^tnx pi. d^Jik for ta^ira tent, awning, covering of goats' hair 
over the poles or timbers which constituted the original booth, ii3p. 

21. ba*H Jubal, player on an instrument? 

22. ■p.jHEjlSi Tubal-qain, brass-smith ? The scion or son of the 
lance. i"ra-|jji Na'amah, pleasant, lovely. 

17. And Cain knew Ms wife : and she conceived and bare 
Henok : and he was building a city, and called the name of 
the city after the name of his son Henok. 18. And unto 
Henok was born Irad ; and Irad begat Mehujael ; and Mehu- 
jael begat Methushael; and Methushael begat Lamek. 19. 
And Lamek took unto him two wives : the name of the one 
was Adah, and the name of the second Zillah. 20. And Adah 
bare Jabal ; he was the father of such as dwell in tents and 
have cattle. 21. And the name of his brother was Jubal; he 
was the father of all that handle harp and pipe. 22. And 
Zillah, she also bare Tubal-cain, a forger of every tool of brass 
and iron. And the sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah. 23. 
And Lamek said unto his wives : 

Adah and Zillah, hear my voice, 

Wives of Lamek, hearken to my speech : 
For a man have I slain for my wound, 

And a youth for my hurt. 
24. If seven-fold avenged be Cain, 

Then Lamek seventy and seven. 

Mankind is now formally divided into two branches, — those who 
still abide in the presence of God, and those who have fled to a 



158 THE LINE OF CAIN. 

distance from him. Distinguishing names will soon be given to these 
according to their outward profession and practice (Gen. vi. 1). The 
awful distinction according to the inward state of the feelings has been 
already given in the terms, the seed of the woman and the seed of the 
serpent. 

17. Cain is not unaccompanied in his banishment. A wife, at least, 
is the partner of his exile. And soon a son is born to him. He was 
building a city at the time of this birth. The city is a keep or fort, 
enclosed with a wall for the defence of all who dwell within. The 
building of the city is the erection of this wall or barricade. Here we 
find the motive of fear and self-defence still ruling Cain. His hand has 
been imbrued in a brother's blood, and he expects every man's hand 
will be against him. 

He calls his son Henok, and his city after the name of his son. The 
same word is employed as a name in the lines of Seth (Gen. v. 18), of 
Midian (Gen. xxv. 4), and of Reuben (Gen. xlvi. 9). It signifies 
dedication or initiation, and, in the present case, seems to indicate a 
new beginning of social existence, or a consciousness of initiative or 
inventive power, which necessity and self-reliance called forth particu- 
larly in himself and his family. It appears, from the flocks kept by 
Habel, the fear of persons meeting and slaying the murderer, the mar- 
riage and family of Cain, and the beginning of a city, that a consider- 
ble time had elapsed since the fall. The wife of Cain was of necessity 
his sister, though this was forbidden in after times, for wise and holy 
reasons, when the necessity no longer existed. 

18. The names in this verse seem to denote, respectively, fleet as a 
wild ass, stricken by God, man of prayer, and youth. They indicate 
a mingling of thoughts and motives in men's minds, in which the word 
ba mighty as a name of God occurs. This name is a common noun, 
signifying hero or potentate, and also power or might, and is trans- 
ferred to God as the Potentate, or Almighty One. It is distinguished 
from Births God, since they are put in apposition (Jos. xxii. 22) ; 
and seems to be properly an epithet applied to God by way of preem- 
inence. The denomination, " stricken of the Mighty," is a recognition of 
the divine power. " The man of prayer," or " asking," may also have 
reference to an act of worship. Among these higher thoughts we also 
find a value put upon youth and physical superiority, as the fleetness 
of the wild ass. This is all we can learn from these imperfectly 
understood names. 

19. This is the first record and probably the first instance of polyg- 



GEN. IV. 17-24. 159 

amy. The names of the two wives, Adah, beauty, and Zillah, shade or 
tinkling, seem to refer to the charms which attracted Lamek. Super- 
abundance of wealth and power perhaps led Lamek to multiply wives. 

20. Here is the first notice of the tent and of cattle. The tent was 
the thin shining and shading canvas of goats' hair, which was placed 
over the poles or timbers that constituted the original booth. In 
process of time it would supplant the branches and foliage of the booth 
as a covering from the sun or the wind. The cattle are designated ]>y 
a word denoting property, as being chattels personal, and consisting 
chiefly of sheep and oxen. The idea of property had now been 
practically realized. The Cainites were now prosperous and numerous, 
and therefore released from that suspicious fear which originated the 
fortified keep of their progenitor. The sons of Jabal rove over the 
common with their tents and cattle, undismayed by imaginary terrors. 

21. Here is the invention of musical instruments in their two leading 
varieties, the harp and the pipe. This implies the previous taste for 
music and song. It seems not unlikely that Zillah, the mother of 
Jubal, was a daughter of song. The fine arts follow in the train of 
the useful. All this indicates the easy circumstances in which the 
Cainites now found themselves. 

22. The three names Jabal, Jubal, and Tubal are formed from a 
root signifying to flow, run, go forth, perhaps blow, from which comes 
Jerfy the blast or trumpet-note of joy and release. Accordingly all 
sorts of going forth, that were suitable to the life of a nomad, seem to 
have distinguished this family. The addition of Cain to the name of 
Tubal may have been a memorial of his ancestor, or an indication of 
his pursuit. Tubal of the spear or lance may have been his familiar 
designation. The making of tents implies some skill in carpentry, and 
also in spinning and weaving. The working in brass and iron fur- 
nishes implements for war, hunting, or husbandry. The construction 
of musical instruments shows considerable refinement in carving and 
moulding wood. Naamah, the lovely, seems to be mentioned on 
account of her personal charms. 

23. 24. In this fragment of ancient song, we have Lamek, under the 
strong excitement of having slain a man in self-defence, reciting to his 
wives the deed, and at the same time comforting them and himself 
with the assurance that if Cain the murderer would be avenegd seven- 
fold, he the manslayer in self-defence would be avenged seventy and 
seven fold. This short ode has all the characteristics of the most perfect 
Hebrew poetry. Every pair of lines is a specimen of the Hebrew 



160 THE LINE OE CAIN. 

parallelism or rhythm of sentiment and style. They all belong to the 
synthetic, synonymous, or cognate parallel, the second member reiter- 
ating with emphasis the first. Here we observe that Lamek was a 
poet ; one of his wives was probably a songstress, and the other had a 
taste for ornament. One daughter was the lovely, and three sons were 
the inventors of most of the arts which sustain and embellish life. This 
completes the picture of this remarkable family. 

It has been noticed that the inventive powers were more largely de- 
veloped in the line of Cain than in that of Sheth. And it has been 
suggested that the worldly character of the Cainites accounts for this. 
The Shethites contemplated the higher things of God, and therefore 
paid less attention to the practical arts of life. The Cainites, on the 
other hand, had not God in their thoughts, and therefore gave the more 
heed to the requisites and comforts of the present life. 

But besides this the Cainites, penetrating into the unknown tracts 
of this vast common, were compelled by circumstances to turn their 
thoughts to the invention of the arts by which the hardships of their 
condition might be abated. And as soon as they had conquered the 
chief difficulties of their new situation, the habits of industry and men- 
tal activity which they had acquired were turned to the embellish- 
ments of life. 

We have no grounds, however, for concluding that the descendants 
of Cain were as yet entirely and exclusively ungodly on the one hand, 
or on the other that the descendants of Sheth were altogether desti- 
tute of inventive genius or inattentive to its cultivation. "With the 
exception of the assault that seemed to have provoked the homicidal 
act of Lamek, and the bigamy of Lamek himself, we find not much to 
condemn in the recorded conduct of the race of Cain ; and in the names 
of some of them we discover the remembrance and recognition of God. 
Habel had a keeper of. cattle before Jabal. The Cainites were also 
an older race than the Shethites. And when Noah was commissioned 
to build the ark, we have no reason to doubt that he was qualified in 
some measure by natural ability and previous training for such a task. 

The line of Cain is traced no further than the seventh generation 
from Adam. We cannot tell whether there were any more in that 
line before the flood. The design of tracing it thus far, is to point out 
the origin of the arts of life, and the first instances of bigamy and 
homicide in self-defence. 



GEN. IV. 25, 26. 161 



XX. SHETH. — Gen. iv. 25. 26. 

25. tva Sheth, placed, put. 

26. ttJiiis Enosh, man, sickly, fittn $Hp means, 1st, to call an ob- 
ject by its name (Is. xl. 26, xliii. 1, xlv. 3, 4) ; 2d, to call an object by 
the name of another, who is the parent, leader, husband, owner (Num. 
xxxii. 42 : Judg. xviii. 29 ; Ps. xlix. 12 ; Is. xliii. 7, xliv. 5, xlviii. 
1 ; lxv. 1) ; 3d, to proclaim the name of (Ex. xxxiii. 19, xxxv. 5, 
6) ; 4th, to call upon the name of God, to address him by his proper 
name with an audible voice in the form of prayer. This is the most 
common meaning of the phrase. In this sense it is followed by Jeho- 
vah as the proper name of the true God among the Hebrews. It is 
not to be forgotten that names were still significant, at this early period. 



25. And Adam knew again his wife ; and she bare a son, 
and called his name Sheth. For God hath given me another 
seed instead of Habel, whom Cain slew. 28. And to Sheth 
himself also was born a son ; and he called his name Enosh. 
Then was it begun to call upon the name of the Lord. § 4. 

This passage completes the account of Adam's family. Henceforth 
we generally meet with two parallel lines of narrative, as the human 
family is divided into two great branches, with opposing interests and 
tendencies. The main line refers to the remnant of the race that are 
on terms of open reconciliation with God ; while a collateral line notes 
as far as necessary the state of those who have departed from the 
knowledge and love of the true God. 

25. The narrative here reverts to a point subsequent to the death 
of Habel, when another son is born to Adam, whom his mother Eve 
regards as a substitute for Habel, and names Sheth in allusion to that 
circumstance. She is in a sadder, humbler frame than when she 
named her first-born, and therefore does not employ the personal name 
of the Lord. Yet her heart is not so much downcast as when she 
called her second son a breath. Her faith in God is sedate and pen- 
sive, and hence she uses the more distant and general term Elohim, 
God. 

Yet there is a peculiar significance in the form of expression she 
21 



162 SHETH. 

employs. For God hath given me another seed instead of Habel. He 
is to be instead of Habel, and God-fearing like Habel. Far above this 
consideration, God hath given him. This son is from God. She 
regards him as God's son. She receives this gift from God, and in 
faith expects him to be the seed of God, the parent of a godly race. 
Her faith was not disappointed. His descendants earn the name of 
the sons of God. As the ungodly are called the seed of the serpent, 
because they are of his spirit, so the godly are designated the seed of 
God, because they are of God's Spirit. The Spirit of God strives and 
rules in them, and so they are, in the graphic language of Scripture, 
the sons of God (Gen. vi. 1). 

26. A son is born to Sheth also, whom he calls Enosh. In this 
name there is probably an allusion to the meaning of sickliness and 
dependence which belongs to the root. These qualities were now 
found to be characteristic of man in his present state. 

The closing sentence signalizes a remarkable event, which took 
place at the birth of Enosh, about two hundred and forty years after 
the creation of Adam. Then was it begun to call upon the name of 
the Lord. The solemn invocation of God by his proper name in audi- 
ble and social prayer and praise is the most usual meaning of the 
phrase now before us, and is to be adopted unless there be something 
in the context or the circumstances demanding another meaning. This 
involves also the first of the meanings given above, as we call God by 
his name in oral worship. It includes the third in one of its forms, as 
in praise we proclaim the name of our God. And it leads to the sec- 
ond, as those who call on the name of the Lord are themselves called 
the children of God. 

Some change is here intimated in the mode of approaching God in 
worship. The gist of the sentence, however, does not lie in the name 
Jehovah, For this term was not then new in itself, as it was used by 
Eve at the birth of Cain ; nor was it new in this connection, as the 
phrase now appears for the first time, and Jehovah is the ordinary 
term employed in it ever afterwards to denote the true God. As a 
proper name, Jehovah is the fit and customary word to enter into a 
solemn invocation. It is, as we have seen, highly significant. It 
speaks of the Self-existent, the Author of all existing things, and in 
particular of man ; the Self-manifest, who has shown himself merciful 
and gracious to the returning penitent, and with him keeps promise 
and covenant. Hence it is the custom itself of calling on the name of 
Jehovah, of addressing God by his proper name, which is here said to 
have been commenced. 



GEN. IV. 25-26. 163 

At first sight, with our habits and associations, it seems a very 
strange thing that calling upon the name of the Lord should only begin 
two hundred and forty years after the creation of man. But let us 
endeavor to divest ourselves of these limitations, and rise to the prime- 
val simplicity of man's thoughts in regard to God. We read of God 
speaking to man in paradise, but not of man speaking to God. In the 
examination that preceded the sentence passed upon the transgressors, 
we hear Adam and Eve replying to the questions of God, but not 
venturing to open a conversation with the Most High. If the feeling 
of reverence and solemn awe did not permit such a liberty before the 
fall, much more would the superadded sense of guilt after that event 
restrain man from making any advances toward the infinitely holy 
Being whom he had so wantonly offended. The rebuking examina- 
tion, the judicial sentence, and the necessary execution of this sentence 
in its preliminary form, were so prominent and impressive as to throw 
into the background any intimations of the divine mercy with which 
they were accompanied. The latter, however, were not unnoticed, or 
without a salutary effect on the primeval pair. Adam believed the in- 
dications of mercy, whether in word or deed, which God gave him. 
Faith was prompt and natural in that early stage of comparative near- 
ness to God, to his manifest presence and his conspicuous wonders of 
creative power. It was also a native tendency of the human breast, 
and would be so still, had we not become so sophisticated by education 
that doubt has come to be the prominent attitude of our minds. This 
faith of the first pair led to confession ; not directly, however, to God, 
but indirectly in the names Adam gave his wife, and Eve her first-born 
son. Here humble, distant, self-condemning faith solilloquizes, or, at 
most, the penitent pair converse in humble hope about the mercy of 
the Most High. 

The bringing of an offering to God was a step in advance of this 
penitent, humble, submissive, self-accusing faith. It was the exact 
counterpart and representation by a well-devised symbol of the nature 
of the offerer's faith. It was therefore a confession of faith and cer- 
tain accompanying feelings towards God by a symbolic act. It was 
quite natural that this mute sign should precede the actual address. 
The consequences, however, of the approach of Cain and Habel were 
calculated to deepen again the feeling of dread, and to strike the on- 
looker dumb in the presence of the High and Holy One. Still would 
this be so in that infantile state of man when one thought would take 
full possession of the soul, until another was plainly and directly 



164 SHETH. 

brought before the attention. In this simple, unsophisticated state of 
the penitent, we can conceive him to resign himself passively to the 
merciful will of that Maker whom he has grievously offended, without 
venturiDg to breathe a wish or even to lift up a note of thanksgiving. 
Such mute acquiescence in the divine will for two hundred and forty 
years was well-befitting the humble penitents of that infantile age, 
standing in solemn awe under a sense of their own demerit and of the 
infinite holiness of the Majesty on high. There were even an eloquent 
pathos and power in that tacit reverence fitted to move the heart of 
the All-searching Spirit more than ten thousand voices less deeply pen- 
etrated with a sense of the guilt of sin and the beauty of holiness. 

At length, however, Sheth was given to Eve, and accepted by her as 
a substitute for Habel. Enosh, the child of sorrow, was born to him. 
Collateral with this line of descent, and all the anxieties and wants 
which it involved, was the growth of a class of men who were of the 
spirit of Cain, and receded further and further from God. In these 
circumstances of growing iniquity on the one hand, and growing faith 
on the other, believing reason comes to conceive the full import of the 
mercy of God, freely and fully accepts of pardon, and realizes the 
peace and privilege which it bestows. Growing man now compre- 
hends all that is implied in the proper name of God, Jehovah, the au- 
thor of being, of promise, and of performance. He finds a tongue, and 
ventures to express the desires and feelings that have been long pent 
up in his breast, and are now bursting for utterance. These petitions 
and confessions are now made in an audible voice, and with a holy 
urgency and courage rising above the depressing sense of self-abase- 
ment to the confidence of peace and gratitude. These adorations are 
also presented in a social capacity, and thereby acquire a public noto- 
riety. The father, the elder of the house, is the master of words, and 
he becomes the spokesman of the brotherhood in this new relationship 
into which they have spontaneously entered with their Father in 
heaven. The spirit of adoption has prompted the confiding and en- 
dearing terms, Abba, Father, and now the winged words ascend to 
heaven, conveying the adorations and aspirations of the assembled 
saints. The new form of worship attracts the attention of the early 
world, and the record is made, " Then began they to call upon the 
name of the Lord," that keepeth covenant and mercy. 

Here we perceive that the holy race has passed beyond its infancy. 
It has learned to speak with God in the language of faith, of conscious 
acceptance, of freedom, of hope, of love. This is a far nobler attain- 



GEN. IV. 25-26. 165 

ment than the invention of all the arts of life. It is the return from 
that revulsive dread with which the conscious sinner shrank back from 
the felt holiness of God. It is the drawing of the divine mercy and 
love let into the penitent soul, by which it has come to itself, and taken 
courage to return to the merciful Jehovah, and speak to him the lan- 
guage of penitence, of confession, of gratitude. These believing peni- 
tents, chiefly it is to be supposed in the line of Sheth, of which this 
paragraph speaks, began to be distinguished as the followers of the 
Lord ; whereas others at the same time had forgotten the Lord, and 
renounced even the form of reverence for him. The seed of the wo- 
man was now distinguished from the seed of the serpent. The latter 
are in a spiritual sense called the seed of the serpent, because they 
cling to the principles of the tempter ; and the former may in the same 
sense be designated the seed or sons of God, because they follow after 
him as the God of mercy and truth. Thus the lamentable fact ob- 
trudes itself upon our view that a portion of the human family have 
persisted in the primeval apostasy, and are no longer associated with 
their fellows in acknowledging their common Maker. 

The progress of moral evil in the antediluvian world was manifested 
in fratricide, in going out from the presence of the Lord, in personal 
violence, and in polygamy. The first is the normal character of all 
murder ; the second gave scope for the third, the daring and presump- 
tuous violence of the strong ; and the fourth ultimately led to an almost 
total corruption of manners. It is curious to observe that ungodliness, 
in the form of disobedience and departure from God and therefore of 
the practical breach of the first commandment, and unrighteousness in 
the form of murder, the crime of masterful passion and violence, which 
is the transgression of the first commandment concerning our neigh- 
bor, are the starting-points of sin in the world. They do not seem 
to have yet reached idolatry and adultery. This appears to point 
out that the prohibitions into which the law is developed in the ten 
commandments are arranged in the order of time as well as of nature. 

The preceding chapters, if written in substance by Adam, formed 
the primeval Bible of mankind. But, whether written at that time or 
not, they contain the leading facts which occurred in the early history 
of man in relation to his Maker. These facts were well known to the 
antediluvian world, and formed the rule by which it was to be guided 
in approaching to God, presenting to him an acceptable offering, calling 
upon his name, and so walking with him in peace and love. Here we 
have all the needful germs of a gospel for the infantile race. If we 



166 SHETH. 

ask why they were not effectual, the answer is at hand. They were 
effectual with a few, and are thereby proved sufficient to recover man 
from sin, and vindicate the mercy of God. But the All-wise Being, 
who made man a moral agent, must thoroughly guard his freedom, 
even in the dealings of mercy. And in the folly and madness of their 
self-will, some will revolt more and more. The history was written 
for our learning. Let its lessons be pondered. Let the accumulated 
experience of bygone wanderings recorded in the book of God be our 
warning, to return at length with our whole heart to our merciful 
Father. 



SECTION V. — THE LINE TO NOAH. 



XXI. THE LINE OF SHETH. — Gen. v. 

1. *iSb writing, a writing, a booh. 
9. "jlpg Qenan, possessor, or spearsman. 
12. b a bb fi a Mahalalel, |>raw« 0/ i£/. 
15. Tn 15 Jered, going down. 
21. rfettjltro Methushelach, man of the missile. 
29. its Noach, res£, Dfi3 s^yA; repent; pity ; comfort oneself ; be re- 
venged. 

32. dia Shem, name, fame ; r. be high, dn Cham, ^etf. M^n Japheth, 
spreading ; r. spread out. 

Y. 1. This is the book of the generations of man. In the 
day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he 
him. 2. Male and female created he them ; and blessed them, 
and called their name man, in the day of their being created. 
3. And Adam lived thirty and a hundred years, and begat (a 
son) in his likeness, after his image ; and he called his name 
Sheth. 4. And the days of Adam, after he begat Sheth, were 
eight hundred years ; and he begat sons and. daughters. 5. 
And all the days of Adam that he lived were nine hundred and 
thirty years ; and he died. 

6. And Sheth lived five and a hundred years, and begat 
Enosh. 7. And Sheth lived, after he begat Enosh, seven and 
eight hundred years, and begat sons and daughters. 8. And 
all the days of Sheth were twelve and nine hundred years ; and 
he died. § 6. 

9. And Enosh lived ninety years, and begat Kenan. 10. 
And Enosh lived, after he begat Kenan, fifteen and eight hun- 



168 LINE TO NOAH. 

dred years, and begat sons and daughters. 11. And all the 
days of Enosh were five and nine hundred years; and he 
died. § 7. 

12. And Kenan lived seventy years, and begat Mahalalel. 13. 
And Kenan lived, after he begat Mahalalel, forty and eight 
hundred years, and begat sons and daughters. 14. And all 
the days of Kenan were ten and nine hundred years ; and he 
died. § 8. 

15. And Mahalalel lived five and sixty years and begat 
Jared. 16. And Mahalalel lived, after he begat Jared, thirty 
and eight hundred years, and begat sons and daughters. 17. 
And all the days of Mahalalel were five and ninety and eight 
hundred years ; and he died. § 9. 

18. And Jared lived two and sixty and a hundred years, 
and begat Henok. 19. And Jared lived, after he begat Henok, 
eight hundred years, and begat sons and daughters. 20. And 
all the days of Jared were two and sixty and nine hundred 
years ; and he died. § 10. 

21. And Henok lived five and sixty years, and begat Methu- 
shelah. 22. And Henok walked with the God, after he begat 
Methushelah, three hundred years, and begat sons and daugh- 
ters. 23. And all the days of Henok were five and sixty and 
three hundred years. 24. And Henok walked with the God ; 
and he was not, for God took hirn. § 11. 

25. And Methushelah lived seven and eighty and a hundred 
years, and begat Laniek. 26. And Methushelah lived, after he 
begat Lamek, two and eighty and seven hundred years, and 
begat sons and daughters. 27. And all the days of Methu- 
shelah were nine and sixty and nine hundred years ; and he 
died. § 12. 

28. And Laniek lived two and eighty and a hundred years, 
and begat a son. 29. And he called his name Noah ; saying : 
This shall comfort us in our work and the toil of our hands, 
from the soil which the Lord hath cursed. 30. And Lamek 






GEN. V. 169 

lived, after lie begat Noah, five and ninety and five hundred 
years, and begat sons and daughters. 31. And all the days 
of Lamek were seven and seventy and seven hundred years ; 
and he died. § 13. 

32. And Noah was the son of five hundred years ; and Noah 
begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 

We now enter upon the third of the larger documents contained in 
Genesis. The first is a diary, the second is a history, the third a 
genealogy. The first employs the name Elohim exclusively ; the sec- 
ond uses Jehovah Elohim in the second and third chapters, and Jeho- 
vah usually in the fourth ; the third has Elohim in the first part, and 
Jehovah in the second part. The name Elohim is employed in the 
beginning of the chapter with a manifest reference to the first docu- 
ment, which is here quoted and abridged. 

This chapter contains the line from Adam to Noah, in which are 
stated some common particulars concerning all, and certain special 
details concerning three of them. The genealogy is traced to the 
tenth in descent from Adam, and terminates with the flood. The 
scope of the chapter is to mark out the line of faith and hope and 
holiness from Adam, the first head of the human race, to Noah, who 
became eventually the second natural head of it. 

1, 2. These verses are a recapitulation of the creation of man. The 
first sentence is the superscription of the new piece of composition 
now before us. The heading of the second document was more com- 
prehensive. It embraced the generations, evolutions, or outworkings of 
the skies and the land, as soon as they were called into existence, and 
was accordingly dated from the third day. The present document 
confines itself to the generations of man, and commences, therefore, 
with the sixth day. The generations here are literal for the most 
part, though a few particulars of the individuals mentioned are re- 
corded. But taken in a large sense this superscription will cover the 
whole of the history in the Old and New Testaments. It is only in the 
prophetic parts of these books that we reach again in the end of things 
to the wider compass of the heavens and the earth (Isa. Ixv. 17 ; 
2 Pet. iii. 13; Rev. xxi. 1). Then only does the sphere of history 
enlarge itself to the pristine dimensions in the proper and blessed 
sense, when the second Adam appears on earth, and re-connects 
heaven and earth in a new, holy, and everlasting covenant. 
22 



170 LINE TO NOAH. 

The present superscription differs from the former one in the intro- 
duction of the word n5G hook. There is here some ground in the text 
for supposing the insertion by Moses of an authentic document, handed 
down from the olden time, in the great work which he was directed to 
compose. The chapter before us could not have been completed, in- 
deed, till after the birth of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. But if we 
except the last verse, there is no impossibility or improbability in its 
being composed before the deluge. 

The invention of writing at that early period is favored by some 
other circumstances connected with these records. We cannot say 
that it is impossible for oral tradition to preserve the memory of 
minute transactions, — sayings, songs, names, and numbers of years up 
to a thousand, — especially in a period when men's lives exceeded nine 
hundred years. But we can easily see that these details could be much 
more easily handed down if there was any method of notation for the 
help of the memory. The minute records of this kind, therefore, 
which we find in these early chapters, though not very numerous, 
afford a certain presumption in favor of a very early knowledge of the 
art of writing. 

2. And called their name man. This name seems to connect man 
(n^x) with the soil from which he was taken (Sie*™ Gen. ii. 7). It is 
evidently a generic or collective term, denoting the species. God, as 
the maker, names the race, and thereby marks its character and purpose. 

3-5. In the compass of these three verses the course of Adam's life 
is completed. And after the same model the lines of all his lineal 
descendants in this chapter are drawn up. The certain particulars 
stated are the years he lived before the birth of a certain son, the 
number of years he afterwards lived during which sons and daughters 
were born to him, and his death. Two sons, and most probably sev- 
eral daughters, were born to Adam before the birth of Sheth. But 
these sons have been already noticed, and the line of Noah is here 
given. It is obvious, therefore, that the following individuals in the 
genealogy may, or may not, have been first-born sons. The stated 
formula, and he died, at the close of each life except that of Henok, is 
a standing demonstration of the effect of disobedience. 

The writer, according to custom, completes the life of one patriarch 
before he commences that of the next ; and so the first event of the 
following biography is long antecedent to the last event of the preced- 
ing one. This simply and clearly illustrates the law of Hebrew 
narrative. 



GEN. V. 171 

The only peculiarity in the life of Adam is the statement that his 
son was in his likeness, after his image. This is no doubt intended to 
include that depravity which had become the characteristic of fallen 
man. It is contrasted with the preceding notice that Adam was origi- 
nally created in the image of God. If it had been intended merely to 
indicate that the offspring was of the same species with the parent, the 
phrase, after his hind (tfWTbfc), would have been employed, as in the 
first chapter. This is one of the mysteries of the race, when the head 
of it is a moral being, and has fallen. His moral depravity, affecting 
the essential difference of his nature, descends to his offspring. 

As this document alludes to the first in the words, in the day of God's 
creating man, in the likeness of God made he him, quotes its very' 
words in the sentence, male and female created he them, refers to the 
second in the words, and called their name man (Gen. ii. 7), and also 
needs this second for the explication of the statement that the offspring 
of man bore his likeness, it presupposes the existence and knowledge 
of these documents at the time when it was written. If it had been 
intended for an independent work, it would have been more full and 
explanatory on these important topics. 

21-24. The history of the Shethite Henok is distinguished in two 
respects : First, after the birth of Methushelah, he walked with the 
God. Here for the first time we have God (ptffiiQ with the definite 
article, with which it occurs more than four hundred times. By this 
he is emphatically distinguished as the God, now made known by his 
acts and manifestations, in opposition to atheism, the sole God in op- 
position to polytheism, and the true God in opposition to all false gods 
or notions of God. It is possible that in the time of Henok some had 
forsaken the true God, and fallen into various misconceptions concern- 
ing the Supreme Being. His walking with the God is a hint that 
others were walking without this God. 

The phrase "walked with God" is rendered in the Septuagint 
evr]pi(TT7}6€ to $€<a, pleased God, and is adduced in the Epistle to the 
Hebrews (ii. 5, 6) as an evidence of Henok's faith. "Walking with 
God implies community with him in thought, word, and deed, and is 
opposed in Scripture to walking contrary to him. We are not at lib- 
erty to infer that Henok was the only one in this line who feared God. 
But we are sure that he presented an eminent example of that faith 
which purifies the heart and pleases God. 

He made a striking advance upon the attainment of the times of his 
ancestor Sheth. In those days they began to call upon the name of 



172 LINE TO NOAH. 

the Lord. Now the fellowship of the saints with God reaches its 
highest form, — that of walking with him, doing his will and enjoying 
his presence in all the business of life. Hence this remarkable servant 
of God is accounted a prophet, and foretells the coming of the Lord to 
judgment (Jude 14, 15). It is further to be observed that this most 
eminent saint of God did not withdraw from the domestic circle, or the 
ordinary duties of social life. It is related of him as of the others, 
that during the three hundred years of his walking with God he begat 
sons and daughters. 

Secondly, The second peculiarity of Henok was his translation. 
This is related in the simple language of the times. And he was not, 
for God took Mm ; or, in the version, of the Septuagint, " and he wa,s 
not found, for God translated him." Hence in the New Testament it 
is said, Heb. xi. 5, " By faith Enoch was translated, that he should not 
see death." This passage is important for the interpretation of the 
phrase ^Jpfrp. kol ov^ cvptorKero, and he was not (found). It means, we 
perceive, not absolutely, he was not, but relatively, he was not extant 
in the sphere of sense. If this phrase do not denote annihilation, much 
less does the phrase " and he died." The one denotes absence from 
the world of sense, and the other indicates the ordinary way in which 
the soul departs from this world. Here, then, we have another hint 
that points plainly to the immortality of the soul (see on Gen. iii. 
22). 

This glimpse into primeval life furnishes a new lesson to the men 
of early times and of all succeeding generations. An atonement was 
shadowed forth in the offering of Habel. A voice was given to the 
devout feelings of the heart in the times of Sheth. And now a walk 
becoming one reconciled to God, calling upon his name, and animated 
by the spirit of adoption, is exhibited. Faith has now returned to God, 
confessed his name, and learned to walk with him. At this point God 
appears and gives to the antediluvian race a new and conclusive token 
of the riches and power of mercy in counteracting the effects of sin in 
the case of the returning penitent. Henok does not die, but lives ; 
and not only lives, but is advanced to a new stage of life, in which all 
the power and pain of sin are at an end forever. This crowns and 
signalizes the power of grace, and represents in brief the grand finale 
of a life of faith. This renewed man is received up into glory without 
going through the intermediate steps of death and resurrection. If we 
omit the violent end of Habel, the only death on record that precedes 
the translation of Henok is that of Adam. It would have been incon- 



GEK V. 173 

gruous that he who brought sin and death into the world should not 
have died. But a little more than half a century after his death, Henok 
is wafted to heaven without leaving the body. This translation took 
place in the presence of a sufficient number of witnesses, and furnished 
a manifest proof of the presence and reality of the invisible powers. 
Thus were life and immortality as fully brought to light as was neces- 
sary or possible at that early stage of the world's history. Thus was 
it demonstrated that the grace of God was triumphant in accomplish- 
ing the final and full salvation of all who returned to God. The pro- 
cess might be slow and gradual, but the end was now shown to be sure 
and satisfactory. 

25-27. Methushelah is the oldest man on record. He lived to be 
within thirty-one years of a thousand, and died in the year of the 
flood. 

28-31. In the biography of Lamek the name of his son is not only 
given, but the reason of it is assigned. The parents were cumbered 
with the toil of cultivating the ground. They looked forward with 
hope to the aid or relief which their son would give them in bearing 
the burden of life, and they express this hope in his name. In stating 
the reason of the name, they employ a word which is connected with 
it only by a second remove, nw and dtp are stems not immediately 
connected ; but they both point back to a common root na signifying to 
sigh, breathe, rest, lie down. 

This is only another recorded instance of the habit of giving names 
indicative of the thoughts of the parents at the time of the child's birth. 
All names were originally significant, and have still to this day an 
import. Some were given at birth, others at later periods, from some 
remarkable circumstance in the individual's life. Hence many char- 
acters of ancient times were distinguished by several names conferred 
at different times and for different reasons. The reason of the present 
name is put on record simply on account of the extraordinary destiny 
which awaited the bearer of it. 

Which the Lord hath cursed. Here is another incidental allusion to 
the second document, without which it would not be intelligible. If 
the present document had been intended to stand alone, this remark 
would have had its explanation in some previous part of the narrative. 

32. And Noah was the son of Jive hundred years. A man is the son 
of a certain year, in and up to the close of that year, but not beyond 
it. Thus Noah was in his six hundredth year when he was the son of 
six hundred years (Gen. vii. 11, 6), and a child was circumcised on 



174: THE LINE TO NOAH. 

the eighth day, being then the son of eight days (Lev. xii. 3 ; Gen. 
xvii. 12). 

When the phrase indicates a point of time, as in Lev. xxvii., 
it is the terminating point of the period in question. The first part 
only of the biography of Noah is given in this verse, and the remain- 
der will be furnished in due time and place. Meanwhile Noah is con- 
nected with the general history of the race, which is now to be taken 
up. His three sons are mentioned, because they are the ancestors of 
the postdiluvian race. This verse, therefore, prepares for a continua- 
tion of the narrative, and therefore implies a continuator or compiler 
who lived after the flood. 

From the numbers in this chapter it appears that the length of human 
life in the period before the deluge was ten times its present average. 
This has seemed incredible to some, and hence they have imagined 
that the years must have consisted of one month, or at least of a smaller 
number than twelve. But the text will not admit of such amendment 
or interpretation. In the account of the deluge the tenth month is 
mentioned, and sixty-one days are afterwards indicated before the be- 
ginning of the next year, whence we infer that the primeval year con- 
sisted of twelve lunar months at least. But the seemingly incredible 
in this statement concerning the longevity of the men before the flood, 
will be turned into the credible if we reflect that man was made to be 
immortal. His constitution was fitted for a perpetuity of life, if only 
supplied with the proper nutriment. This nutriment was provided in 
the tree of life. But man abused his liberty, and forfeited the source 
of perpetual life. Nevertheless, the primeval vigor of an unimpaired 
constitution held out for a comparatively long period. After the del- 
uge, however, through the deterioration of the climate and the soil, and 
perhaps much more the degeneracy of man's moral and physical being, 
arising from the abuse of his natural propensities, the average length 
of human life gradually dwindled down to its present limits. Human 
physiology, founded upon the present data of man's constitution, may 
pronounce upon the duration of his life so long as the data are the 
same ; but it cannot fairly affirm that the data were never different 
from what they are at present. Meanwhile, the Bible narrative is in 
perfect keeping with its own data, and is therefore not to be disturbed 
by those who still accept these without challenge. 

The following table presents the age of each member of this gene- 
alogy, when his son and successor was born, and when he himself died, 



GEN. V. 



175 



as they stand in the Hebrew text, the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Sep- 
tuagint, and Josephus : 





HEBREW. 


SAM. 


PENT. 


SEPTUAGINT. 


JOSEPHUS. 


DATE. 


Son's 
Birth. 


Own 

Death. 


Son'a 
Birth. 


Own 

Death. 


Son's 
Birth. 


Own 
Death. 


Son's 
Birth. 


Own 

Death. 


Of 

Birth. 


Of 
Death. 


1. Adam . . . 


130 


930 


130 


930 


230 


930 


230 


930 





930 


2. Sheth . . . 


105 


912 


105 


912 


205 


912 


205 


912 


130 


1042 


3. Enosh . . . 


90 


905 


90 


905 


190 


905 


190 


905 


235 


1140 


4. Kenan . . . 


70 


910 


70 


910 


170 


910 


170 


910 


325 


1235 


5. Mahalalel . 


65 


895 


65 


895 


165 


895 


165 


895 


395 


1290 


6. Jared . . . 


162 


962 


62 


847 


162 


962 


162 


962 


460 


1422 


7. Henok . . 


65 


365 


65 


365 


165 


365 


165 


365 


622 


987 


8. Methuselah 


187 


969 


67 


720 


187 


969 


187 


969 


687 


1656 


9. Lamek . . 


182 


777 


53 


653 


188 


753 


182 


777 


874 


1651 


10. Noah . . . 


500 


950 


500 


950 


500 


950 


500 


950 


1056 


2006 


Deluge . . 


100 




100 




100 




100 








1656 




1307 




2262 




2256 




♦ 





On comparing the series of numbers in the Hebrew with those in 
the Samaritan, the Septuagint, and Josephus, it is remarkable that we 
have the main body of the original figures in all. In the total ages of 
the first five and the seventh, and in that of Noah at the flood, they all 
agree. In those of the sixth and eighth, the Hebrew, Septuagint, and 
Josephus agree. In that of the ninth, the Hebrew and Josephus agree, 
while the Samaritan and Septuagint differ from them and from each 
other. On examining the figures of the Samaritan, it appears that the 
sixth, eighth, and ninth total ages would have reached beyond the flood, 
if the numbers found in the other authorities had been retained. And 
they are so shortened as to terminate all in the year of the flood. This 
alteration betrays design. The totals in the Hebrew, then, have by 
far the preponderating authority. 

Of the numbers before the birth of a successor, which are chiefly 
important for the chronology, the units agree in all but Lamek, in re- 
gard to whom the Hebrew and Josephus agree, while the Samaritan 
and the Septuagint differ from them and from each other. The tens 
agree in all but two, Methushelah and Lamek, where the Hebrew, the 
Septuagint, at least in the Codex Alex., and Josephus agree, while the 
Samaritan differs from them all. In the hundreds a systematic and 



176 THE GROWTH OF SIN. 

designed variation occurs. Still they agree in Noah. In Jared, Me- 
thushelah, and Lamek, the Hebrew, Septuagint, and Josephus agree in 
a number greater by a hundred than the Samaritan. In the remain- 
ing six the Hebrew and Samaritan agree ; while the Septuagint and 
Josephus agree in having a number greater by a hundred. On the 
whole, then, it is evident that the balance of probability is decidedly in 
favor of the Hebrew. To this advantage of concurring testimonies 
are to be added those of being the original, and of having been guarded 
with great care. These grounds of textual superiority may be sup- 
ported by several considerations of less weight. The Samaritan and 
the Septuagint follow a uniform plan ; the Hebrew does not, and 
therefore has the mark of originality. Josephus gives the sum total to 
the deluge as two thousand six hundred and fifty-six years, agreeing 
with the total of the Hebrew in three figures, with that of the Septu- 
agint only in two, and with that of the Samaritan in none. Some MSS. 
even give one thousand six hundred and fifty-six, which is the exact 
sum of the Hebrew numbers. Both these readings, moreover, differ 
from the sum of his own numbers, which itself agrees with the Hebrew 
in two figures and with the Septuagint in the other two. This looks 
like a studied conformation of the figures to those of the Septuagint, in 
which the operator forgot to alter the sum total. We do not at present 
enter into the external arguments for or against the Hebrew text. 
Suffice it to observe, that the internal evidence is at present clearly in 
its favor, so far as the antediluvian figures go. 



XXII. THE GROWTH OF SIN. — Gen. vi. 1-8. 

3. 'jil be down, strive, subdue, judge, EiSttJa inasmuch, as also. The 
rendering in their error requires the pointing dauJS , and the plural 
form of the following pronoun. It is also unknown to the Septuagint. 

4. dn^Sja assailants, fellers, men of violence, tyrants. 

VI. 1. And it came to pass, when man began to. multiply 
on the face of the soil, that daughters were born to them. 2. 
And the sons of God saw the daughters of man that they were 
goodly, and they took to them wives of all whom they chose. 



GEN. VI. 1-8. 177 

3. And the Lord said, My Spirit shall not strive with man for- 
ever, inasmuch as he is also flesh ; and his days shall be a 
hundred and twenty years. 4. The giants were in the earth 
in those days ; and also after that, when the sons of God went 
in unto the daughters of man and they bare to them, these 
were the heroes, who were of old men of renown. IT 10. 

5. And the Lord saw that the evil of man was great in the 
earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was 
only evil every day. 6. And it repented the Lord that he had 
made man on the earth, and he was grieved at his heart. 7. 
And the Lord said, I will wipe away man whom I have created 
from off the face of the soil ; from man to cattle to creeper and to 
the fowl of the sky ; for it repenteth me that I have made them. 
8. And Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. 2 TOT 11. 



Having traced the line of descent from Adam through Sheth, the 
seed of God, to Noah, the author proceeds to describe the general 
spread and growth of moral evil in the race of man, and the determi- 
nation of the Lord to wipe it away from the face of the earth. 

1-4. There are two stages of evil set forth in this passage, — the 
one contained in the present, four verses, and the other in the following. 
The former refers to the apostasy of the descendants of Sheth, and the 
cause and consequences of it. When man began to multiply, the sep- 
arate families of Cain and Sheth would come into contact. The 
daughters of the stirring Cainites, distinguished by the graces of na- 
ture, the embellishments of art, and the charms of music and song, even 
though destitute of the loftier qualities of likemindedness with God, 
would attract attention and prompt to unholy alliances. The phrase 
sons of God, means an order of intelligent beings who retain the purity 
of moral character originally communicated, or subsequently restored, 
by their Creator. They are called the sons of God, because they have 
his spirit or disposition. The sons of God mentioned in Job xxxviii. 
7, are an order of rational beings existing before the creation of man, 
and joining in the symphony of the universe, when the earth and all 
things were called into being. Then all were holy, for all are styled 
the sons of God. Such, however, are not meant in the present passage. 
For they were not created as a race, have no distinction of sex, and 
23 



178 THE GROWTH OF SIN. 

therefore no sexual desire ; they " neither marry nor are given in mar- 
riage " (Mat. xxii. 30). It is contrary to the law of nature for dif- 
ferent species even on earth to cohabit in a carnal way ; much more 
for those in the body, and those who have not a body of flesh. More- 
over, we are here in the region of humanity, and not in the sphere of 
superhuman spirits ; and the historian has not given the slightest inti- 
mation of the existence of spiritual beings different from man. 

The sons of God, therefore, are those who are on the Lord's side, 
who approach him with duly significant offerings, who call upon him 
by his proper name, and who walk with God in their daily conversa- 
tion. The figurative use of the word son to denote a variety of rela- 
tions incidental, and moral as well as natural, was not unfamiliar to the 
early speaker. Thus Noah is called the son of Jive hundred years 
(Gen. v. 32). Abraham calls Eliezer TilSn'jS; son of my house (Gen. xv. 
3). The dying Rachel names her son Ben-oni, son of my sorrow, 
while his father called him Benjamin, sow of thy right hand (Gen. xxxv. 
18). An obvious parallel to the moral application is presented in the 
phrases the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. The 
word generations (ni^in v. 1) exhibits a similar freedom and elasti- 
city of meaning, being applied to the whole doings of a rational being, 
and even to the physical changes of the material world (Gen. ii. 4). 
The occasion for the present designation is furnished in the remark of 
Eve on the birth of Sheth. God hath given me another seed instead 
of Habel. Her son Sheth she therefore regarded as the son of God. 
Accordingly, about the birth of his son Enosh, was begun the custom of 
calling upon the name of the Lord, no doubt in the family -circle of 
Adam, with whom Sheth continued to dwell. And Enok, the seventh 
from Adam in the same line, exhibited the first striking example of a 
true believer walking with God in all the intercourse of life. These 
descendants of Sheth, among whom were also Lamek who spoke of the 
Lord, and Noah who walked with God, are therefore by a natural 
transition called the sons of God, the godlike in a moral sense, being 
born of the Spirit, and walking not after the flesh, but after the Spirit 
(Ps. lxxxii. 6 ; Hos. ii. 1). 

Some take the daughters of man to be the daughters of the Cainites 
only. But it is sufficient to understand by this phrase, the daughters 
of man in general, without any distinction of a moral or spiritual kind, 
and therefore including both Cainite and Shethite females. And they 
took them wives of all whom they chose. The evil here described is 
that of promiscuous intermarriage, without regard to spiritual character. 



GEN. VI. 1-8. H9 

The godly took them wives of all ; that is, of the ungodly as well 
as the godly families, without any discrimination. " Whom they 
chose," not for the godliness of their lives, but for the goodliness of 
their looks. Ungodly mothers will not train up children in the way 
they should go ; and husbands who have taken the wrong step of mar- 
rying ungodly wives cannot prove to be very exemplary or authorita- 
tive fathers. Up to this time they may have been consistent as the 
sons of God in their outward conduct. But a laxity of choice proves a 
corresponding laxity of princijde. The first inlet of sin prepares the 
way for the flood-gates of iniquity. It is easy to see that now the de- 
generacy of the whole race will go on at a rapid pace. 

3. My Spirit, in contradistinction to the spirit of disobedience which, 
by the fall, obtained entrance into the soul of man. Shall not strive 
with man forever. To strive ("p^) is to keep down, rule, judge, or 
strive with a man by moral force. From this passage we learn that the 
Lord by his Spirit strives with man up to a certain point. In this 
little negative sentence streams out the bright light of God's free and 
tender mercy to the apostate race of man. He sends his Spirit to ir- 
radiate the darkened mind, to expostulate with the conscience, to prompt 
and strengthen holy resolve, and to bring back the heart, the confidence, 
the affection to God. He effects the blessed result of repentance to- 
wards God in some, who are thus proved to be born of God. But it 
is a solemn thought that with others he will not strive perpetually. 
There is a certain point beyond which he will not go, for sufficient 
reasons known fully to himself, partly to us. Two of these we are to 
notice for our instruction : First, he will not touch the free agency of 
his rational creatures. He can put no force on the volitions of men. 
An involuntary or compulsory faith, hope, love, obedience, is a contra- 
diction in terms ; and anything that could bear the name can have no 
moral validity whatsoever. Secondly, after giving ample warning, in- 
struction, and invitation, he will, as a just judgment on the unbelieving 
and the impenitent, withdraw his Spirit and let them alone. The an- 
tediluvian world was fast approaching to this point of final perversity 
and abandonment. 

Inasmuch as he is also flesh, in contradistinction to spirit, the breath 
of life which the Almighty breathed into his nostrils. These two parts 
of man's complex being were originally in true and happy adjustment, 
the corporeal being the fit organ and complement of the spiritual as it 
is in him. But now by the fall the flesh has gained the upper hand, 
and the spirit is in the bondage of corruption. The fact that he is 



180 THE GROWTH OF SIN. 

flesh also as well as spirit, has therefore come out into sad promi- 
nence. The doctrine of the carnal mind in the Epistle to the Romans 
(viii.) is merely the outgrowth of the thought expressed in this pas- 
sage. 

His days shall be an hundred and twenty years. " His days" are the 
days of man, not the individual, but the race, with whom the Lord still 
strives. Hence they refer to the duration, not of the life of an indi- 
vidual, but of the existence of the race. From this we learn that the 
narrative here reverts to a point of time before the birth of Shem, Ham, 
and Japheth, recorded in the close of the preceding passage, as there 
were only a hundred years from their birth to the deluge. This is 
according to the now well-known method of Scripture, when it has two 
lines of events to carry on. The former narrative refers to the godly 
portion of mankind ; this to the ungodly remnant. 

Not forever will the Lord strive with man ; but his longsuffering 
will still continue for one hundred and twenty years. Meanwhile he 
does not leave himself or his clemency without a witness. He sent 
Noah with the message of warning, who preached by his voice, by his 
walking with God, and also by his long labor and perseverance in the 
building of the ark. The doomed race, however, filled up the measure 
of their iniquity, and when the set number of years was accomplished, 
the overwhelming flood came. 

4. Two classes of men, with strong hand and strong will, are here 
described. The giants, the well-known men of great stature, physical 
force, and violent will, who were enabled by these qualities to claim 
and secure the supremacy over their fellow-men. Had been in the 
land in those days. In the days when those intermarriages were be- 
ginning to take place, the warriors were asserting the claim of might. 
Violence and rapine were becoming rampant in the land. And after 
that. The progeny of the mixed marriages were the second and sub- 
sequent class of leading men. The sons of God are here contradistin- 
guished from the ?iephilim, or giants, who appear therefore to have 
belonged to the Cainites. The offspring of these unhallowed unions 
were the heroes, the gallants, the mighty men, the men of renown. 
They were probably more refined in manners and exalted in thought 
than their predecessors of pure Cainite descent. "Men of name," 
whose names are often in men's mouths, because they either deserved 
or required to be named frequently on account of their influential or 
representative character. Being distinguished from the common herd 
by prominent qualities or memorable exploits, thev were also frequently 



GEN. VI. 1-8. 181 

marked out by a special name or surname, derived from such trait of 
character or deed of notoriety. " Of old " (abiSStt). This has been 
sometimes explained of the world, in the sense of aloiv ; but the mean- 
ing is too late for the present passage. The phrase uniformly means 
of old, covering a more or less extensive length of time. This note of 
time implies a writer probably after the deluge, who could speak of 
antediluvian affairs, as happening of old. 

It is remarkable that we have no hint of any kind of government in 
the antediluvian world. It is open to us to suppose that the patri- 
archal polity would make its appearance, as it is an order based upon 
natural relations. But it is possible that God himself, being still pres- 
ent and manifest, was recognized as the governor. To him offerings 
were brought, and he deals with Cain on his first and second transgres- 
sion. In that case the lawless violence of the strong and wilful is to 
be regarded as rebellion, not only against the patriarchal rule, but the 
divine supremacy. A notice of civil law and government would not 
of course affect the authority of the book. But the absence of such 
notice is in favor of its divine origin. It is obvious that higher things 
than these have the attention of the sacred writer. 

5-8. In these verses we are to conceive the hundred and twenty 
years of respite to be at an end. The iniquity of the race is now full, 
and the determination of the Lord is therefore announced, with a state- 
ment of the grounds on which it rests, and a glance at the individual 
to be excepted from the general destruction. 

5. And God saw. The course of the primeval world was a great 
experiment going on before the eye of God, and of all intelligent 
observers, and manifesting the thorough depravity and full-grown degen- 
eracy of the fallen race, when left to the bent of its perverted inclina- 
tions. Every imagination (13£). Here the object of thought is 
distinguished from the thought itself. This is a distinction not gen- 
erally or constantly recognized by the mental philosopher, though of 
essential importance in the theory of the mind. The thought itself is 
a real phase or attitude of mind ; the form, idea, species, object of 
thought may have matter, real content, or it may not. Only evil every 
day. This is an unlimited condemnation of the state and process of 
the carnal man. The reason is obvious. Homage to God, to truth, 
to right, to love, does not reign in his heart ; and the imaginations or 
purposes that are not regulated by this, however excellent and praise- 
worthy in other respects, are destitute of the first, the essential prin- 
ciple of moral good. This is now made palpable to the eye of 



182 THE GEOWTH OF SIN. 

observation by the almost universal predominance of the ungodly spirit. 
This accordingly forms the ground of the divine procedure. 

6. And it repented the Lord that he had made man. The Scripture 
is frank and unreserved ; some men would say, imprudent or regardless 
of misconstruction, in its statements of truth. Repentance ascribed to 
the Lord seems to imply wavering or change of purpose in the Eter- 
nal Self-existent. But the sublime dictate of the inspired word is, 
" God is not a man, that he should lie ; neither the son of man, that he 
should repent : hath he said and shall he not do it ? or hath he 
spoken and shall he not make it good?" (Num. xxiii. 19.) In sooth, 
every act here recorded — the observation, the resolve, the exception — 
seems equally with the repentance to jar with the unchangeableness of 
God. To go to the root of the matter, every act of the divine will, of 
creative power, or of interference with the order of nature, seems at 
variance with inflexibility of purpose. But, in the first place, man 
has a finite mind and a limited sphere of observation, and therefore is 
not able to conceive or express thoughts or acts exactly as they are in 
God, but only as they are in himself. Secondly, God is a spirit, and 
therefore has the attributes of personality, freedom, and holiness ; and 
the passage before us is designed to set forth these in all the reality of 
their action, and thereby to distinguish the freedom of the eternal mind 
from the fatalism of inert matter. Hence, thirdly, these statements 
represent real processes of the Divine Spirit, analogous at least to those 
of the human. And, lastly, to verify this representation, it is not ne- 
cessary that we should be able to comprehend or construe to ourselves 
in all its practical detail that sublime harmony which subsists between 
the liberty and the immutability of God. That change of state which 
is essential to will, liberty, and activity, may be, for aught we know, 
and from what we know must be, in profound unison with the eternity 
of the divine purpose. 

7. I will wipe away man from the face of the soil. The resolve is 
made to sweep away the existing race of man. Heretofore, individuals 
had departed this life. Adam himself had long since paid the debt of 
nature. These solemn testimonies to the universal doom had not made 
any salutary or lasting impression on the survivors. But now a gen- 
eral and violent destruction is to overtake the whole race, — a standing 
monument of the divine wrath against sin, to all future generations of 
the only family saved. 

From man to cattle, creeper and fowl of the shy. These classes of 
animated nature being mingled up with man are involved in the same 



GEN. VI. 1-8. 183 

ruin with him. This is of a piece with the curse laid upon the serpent, 
which was the unconscious organ of the tempter. It is an instance of 
a law which runs through the whole course of nature, as we observe 
that it is the method of the divine government to allow for the time 
the suffering inflicted on an inferior animal, or even on a fellow-crea- 
ture, by selfish passion. It has an appearance to some minds of harsh- 
ness and unfairness. But we must remember that these animated 
creatures are not moral, and, therefore, the violent termination of their 
organic life is not a punishment ; that the pain incidental to this, being 
apart from guilt, is in itself a beneficial provision for the conservation 
of life ; and that it was not intended that the life of animals should be 
perpetual. The return of the land to a state of desolation by the 
destruction of animal and vegetable life, however, has its lesson for 
man, for whom ultimately all of this beauty and fertility were designed, 
and from whom it is now withdrawn, along with all the glories it fore- 
shadows, as part of the punishment of his guilt. The tenant has be- 
come unworthy of the tabernacle, and accordingly he is dispossessed, 
and it is taken down and removed. 

8. And Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Noah and his 
family are the only exceptions to this sweeping destruction. Hitherto 
we have met with distant and indirect intimations of the divine favor, 
and significant deeds of regard and acceptance. Now for the first 
time grace itself finds a tongue to express its name. Grace has its 
fountain in the divine breast. The stream has been flowing forth to 
Adam, Eve, Habel, Henok, and others, we hope, unknown to fame. 
By the time it reaches Noah it has found a name, by which it is rec- 
ognized among men to this day. It is opposed to works as a source of 
blessing. Whither grace comes there merit cannot be. Hence we 
learn even from the case of Noah that original sin asserts its presence 
in the whole race of Adam. This completes the circle of saving doc- 
trine in regard to God that comes down from the antediluvian times. 
He intimates that the seed of the woman, an individual preeminently 
so called, will bruise the serpent's head. He clothes our first parents 
with coats of skin — an earnest and an emblem of the better, the moral 
clothing of the soul. He regards Habel and his offering. He accepts 
him that in faith does well. He translates Enok, who walked with 
him. His Spirit, we learn, has been striving with antediluvian man. 
Here are the Spirit of God and the seed of the woman. Here are 
clothing, regarding, accepting, translating. Here, then, is salvation 
provided and applied, begun, continued, and completed. And last, 



184 THE GROWTH OF SIN. 

though not least, grace comes out to view, the eternal fountain of the 
whole. On the part of man, also, we have repenting, believing, con- 
fessing, offering, calling on the name of the Lord, and walking with 
God. 

The two parts of the document which is now closed are as distinct 
from each other as it is from the following one. They combine, in fact, 
to form the needful preliminary to the fourth document. The geneal- 
ogy brings us to the leading agent in the succeeding narrative ; the 
description of the corruption of the human race furnishes the occasion 
for his agency. The third is therefore the prologue, as the fifth is the 
epilogue, to the fourth document, in which the main action lies. 



SECTION VI. — THE DELUGE. 



XXIH. THE ARK. — Gen. vi. 9-22. 

9. ifa age, time from birth to death, applied either to an individual 
or the whole contemporary race, running parallel with some leading 
individual. Hence the race or generation living during that time. 

14. Jnan chest, ark. It is used only of this vessel of Noah's con- 
struction, and of the little vessel in which Moses was put (Ex. ii. 3, 5). 
The root, according to Furst, means to be hollow. J-Dtt a cognate 
word, signifies a reed ; kij3wtos, LXX. "lSa a. A,., perhaps fir, cypress, 
resinous wood. 'JJD nest, room ; r. prepare, rear up. 

16. "iii'S shining, light ; not the same as the "jiih (Gen. viii. 6), or the 
aperture through which Noah let out the raven. 

18. FP"i2 covenant ; r. cut, eat, choose, decide. 

9. These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a just 
man ; perfect had he been in his ages ; with the God walked 
Noah. 10. And Noah begat three sons, — Shem, Ham, and 
Japeth. 11. And the land was corrupt before God, and the 
land was filled with violence. 12. And God saw the land, 
and, behold, it was corrupt ; for all flesh had corrupted its 
way upon the land. § 15. 

13. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come 
before me ; for the land is filled with violence through them ; 
and, behold, I will destroy them with the land. 14. Make 
thee an ark of gopher wood : rooms shalt thou make in the 
ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. 15. And 
this is the way that thou shalt make it : three hundred cubits 
the length of the ark, fifty cubits the breadth of it, and thirty 
cubits the height of it. 16. Lighting shalt thou make for the 
24 



186 THE AEK. 

ark, and to a cubit slialt thou finish it above ; and the door 
of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof : with lower, sec- 
ond, and third stories shalt thou make it. 17. And I, behold, 
I do bring the flood of water upon the land, to destroy all 
flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under the skies : all 
that is in the land shall expire. 18. And I will establish my 
covenant with thee ; and thou shalt go into the ark, thou and 
thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee. 19. And 
of all the living of all flesh two of each shalt thou bring into 
the ark to keep alive with thee : male and female shall they 
be. 20. Of the fowl after its kind, and of the cattle after its 
kind, of every creeper of the soil after its kind ; two of each 
shall come unto thee to keep alive. 21. And thou take unto 
thee of all food that may be eaten, and gather it for thee : and 
it shall be to thee and to them for food. 22. And Noah did 
so : according to all that God commanded him, so he did. 

The close of the preceding document introduces the opening topic of 
this one. The same rule applies to all that have gone before. The 
generations of the skies and the land (Gen. ii. 4) are introduced by the 
finishing of the skies and the land (ii. 1) ; the generations of man in 
the line of Sheth (v. 1), by the birth of Sheth (iv. 25) ; and now the 
generations of Noah, by the notice that Noah found grace in the eyes 
of the Lord. The narrative here also, as usual, reverts to a point of 
time before the stage of affairs described in the close of the preceding 
passage. Yet there is nothing here that seems to indicate a new au- 
thor. The previous paragraph is historical, and closely connected with 
the end of the fourth chapter ; and it suitably prepares for the pro- 
ceedings of Noah, under the divine direction, on the eve of the deluge. 
We have now a recapitulation of the agent and the occasion, and then 
the divine commission and its execution. 

0-12. Here are the man and the occasion. 9, 10. The generations 
of Noah. In the third document we had the generations of man ; now 
we are limited to Noah, because he is himself at peace with God, and 
is now the head and representative of those who are in the same blessed 
relation. The narrative, therefore, for the first time, formally confines 
itself to the portion of the human family in communion with God. 



GEN. VI. 9-22. 187 

Noah is here characterized by two new and important epithets, — just 
and perfect. It is to be remembered that he had already found grace 
in the eyes of the Lord. Adam was created good ; but by disobedience 
he became guilty, and all his race, Noah among the rest, became 
involved in that guilt. To be just is to be right in point of law, and 
thereby entitled to all the blessings of the acquitted and justified. When 
applied to the guilty, this epithet implies pardon of sin among other 
benefits of grace. It also presupposes that spiritual change by which 
the soul returns from estrangement to reconciliation with God. Hence 
Noah is not only just, but perfect. This attribute of character imports 
not only the turning from darkness to light, from error to truth, from 
wrong to right, but the stability of moral determination which arises 
from the struggle, the trial, the victory of good over evil, therein in- 
volved. The just is the right in law ; the perfect is the tested in holi- 
ness. In his ages ; among the men of his age. This phrase indicates 
the contrast between Noah and the men of his day. It is probable, 
moreover, that he was of pure descent, and in that respect also distin- 
guished from his contemporaries who were the offspring of promiscu- 
ous intermarriage between the godly and the ungodly. Noah walked 
with God, like Henok. This is the native consequence of his victory 
over sin, and his acceptance with God. His sons are mentioned, as 
they are essentially connected with the following events. 

11, 12. And the land was corrupt. In contrast with Noah, the rest 
of the race were corrupt, — entirely depraved by sin. It was filled with 
violence, — with the outward exhibition of inward carnality. And God 
saw this. It was patent to the eye of Heaven. This is the ground of 
the following commission. 

13-21. The directions concerning the ark embrace the purpose to 
destroy the race of man (13), the plan and specification of the ark 
(14-16), the announcement of the deluge (17), the arrangements for 
the preservation of Noah and his family, and certain kinds of animals 
(18-21). 

13. The end of all flesh. The end may mean either the point to 
which it tends, or the extermination of the race. The latter is the 
simpler. All flesh is to be understood of the whole race, while yet it 
does not preclude the exception of Noah and his family. This teaches 
us to beware of applying an inflexible literality to such terms as all, 
when used in the sense of ordinary conversation. Is come before me, 
is in the contemplation of my mind as an event soon to be realized. 
For the land is filled with violence. The reason. I will destroy them. 



188 THE AEK. 

The resolve. There is retribution here, for the words corrupt and 
destroy are the same in the original. 

14-16. The ark. Beckoning the cubit at 1.8 feet, we find the 
length to be about 540, the breadth 90, and the height 54 feet. The 
construction of such a vessel implies great skill in carpentry. The 
lighting apparatus is not described so particularly that we can form 
any conception of it. It was probably in the roof. The roof may 
have Ween flat. And to a cubit shalt thou finish it above. The cubit 
is possibly the height of the parapet round the lighting and ventilating 
aperture. The opening occupied, it may be, a considerable portion of 
the roof, and was covered during the rain with an awning (n&ss Gen. 
viii. 13). If, however, it was in the sides of the ark, the cubit was 
merely its height. It was then finished with a strong railing, which 
went round the whole ark, and over which the covering, above men- 
tioned, hung down on every side. The door was in the side, and the 
stories were three. In each were of course many " nests " or cham- 
bers, for animals and stores. It may be curious to a mechanical mind 
to frame the details of this structure from the general hints here given ; 
but it could not serve any practical end. Only the animals necessary 
to man, or peculiar to the region covered by the deluge, required to be 
included in the ark. It seems likely that wild animals in general were 
not included. It is obvious, therefore, that we cannot calculate the 
number of animals preserved in the ark, or compare the space they 
would require with its recorded dimensions. We may rest assured 
that there was accommodation for all that needed to be there. 

1 7. The method of destruction is now specified. A water flood shall 
cover the land, in which all flesh shall perish. I, behold, I. This 
catastrophe is due to the interposition of the Creator. It does not 
come according to the ordinary laws of physics, but according to the 
higher law of ethics. 

18-21. The covenant with Noah. Here is the first appearance of 
a covenant between God and man on the face of Scripture. A cove- 
nant is a solemn compact, tacit or express, between two parties, in 
which each is bound to perform his part. Hence a covenant implies 
the moral faculty ; and wherever the moral faculty exists, there must 
needs be a covenant. Consequently, between God and man there was 
of necessity a covenant from the very beginning, though the name do 
not appear. At first it was a covenant of works, in regard to man ; 
but now that works have failed, it can only be a covenant of grace to 
the penitent sinner. My covenant. The word my points to its orig- 



GEK VII. 1-9. 189 

inal establishment with Adam. My primeval covenant, which I am 
resolved not to abandon. Will I establish. Though Adam has failed, 
yet will I find means of maintaining my covenant of life with the seed 
of the woman. With thee. Though all flesh be to perish through 
breach of my covenant, yet will I uphold it with thee. Go into the ark. 
This is the means of safety. Some may say in their hearts, this is a 
clumsy way to save Noah. But if he is to be saved, there must be 
some way. And it is not a sign of wisdom to prescribe the way to the 
All-wise. Rather let us reflect that the erection of this ark was a daily 
warning to a wicked race, a deepening lesson of reliance on God to 
Noah and his household, and a most salutary occupation for the pro- 
genitors of the future race of mankind. And thy sons, etc. Noah's 
household share in the covenant. 

19, 20. And of all the living. For the sake of Noah, the animal 
species also shall be preserved, two of each, male and female. They 
are to come in pairs for propagation. 20. The fowl, the cattle, the 
creeping thing or smaller animals, are to come. From this it appears 
that the wild animals are not included among the inmates of the ark. 
(See Gen. vii. 2, 3, 8.) The word all is not to be pressed beyond the 
specification of the writer. As the deluge was universal only in 
respect to the human race, it was not necessary to include any animals 
but those that were near man, and within the range of the overwhelm- 
ing waters. 21. Fodder and other provisions for a year have to be 
laid in. 

22. The obedience of Noah and the accomplishment of his task are 
here recorded. The building of so enormous a fabric must have occu- 
pied many years. 



XXIV. THE ARK ENTERED. — Gen. vii. 1-9. 

2. Tilna clean, fit for food or sacrifice. 

4. &ip*] standing thing; that which grows up, whether animal or 
plant. Comp. tvffg stalk, or standing corn. 

VII. 1. And the Lord said unto Noah, go thou and all thy 
house into the ark : for thee have I seen righteous before me 
in this age. 2. Of all clean cattle thou shalt take to thee seven 



190 THE ARK ENTERED. 

each, he and his mate ; and of cattle that are not clean two, he 
and his mate. 3. Also of the fowl of the skies seven each, male 
and female : to keep alive seed upon the face of all the land. 
4. For in yet seven days will I cause it to rain upon the land 
forty days and forty nights : and I will wipe out every stand- 
ing thing that I have made from the face of the soil. 

5. And Noah did according to all that the Lord commanded 
him. 6. And Noah was the son of six hundred years, when 
the flood of waters came upon the land. 7. And Noah went 
in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him, 
into the ark, from before the waters of the flood. 8. Of the 
clean cattle and of the cattle that are not clean, and of the 
fowl and all that creepeth upon the soil, 9. Two each went 
they unto Noah into the ark, male and female ; as God com- 
manded Noah. 



1—4. The command to enter the ark. The general direction in the 
preceding chapter was given many years ago, before the ark was com- 
menced. Now, when it is completed, a more specific command is 
issued. For thee have I seen righteous before me. Noah has accepted 
the mercy of God, is therefore set right in point of law, and walks 
aright in point of practice. The Lord recognizes this indication of an 
adopted and renewed son. In this age he and his were the solitary 
family so characterized. 

2, 3. Of all clean cattle. Here the distinction of clean and unclean 
animals meets us without any previous notice. How it became known 
to Noah we are not informed. From the former direction it appears 
that the animals were to enter by pairs. Now it is further arranged 
that there are to be seven pairs of the clean cattle and fowl, and only 
one pair of the unclean. 

4. Seven days after the issue of the command the rain is to com- 
mence, and continue for forty days and nights without ceasing. Every 
standing thing means every plant and animal on the land. 

5-9. The execution of the command is recorded and fully particu- 
larized with the additional circumstance of the age of Noah. 6. The 
son of six hundred years, in his six hundredth year. 9. Went they unto 
Noah. They seem to have come under the influence of a special in- 



GEN. VII. 10-24. 191 

stinct, so that Noah did not require to gather them. Seven days were 
employed in receiving them, and storing provisions for them. 



XXV. THE FLOOD. — Gen. vii. 10-24. 

10. And it came to pass in seven days that the waters of 
the flood were upon the land. 11. In the six hundredth year 
of Noah's life, in the second month, in the seventeenth day of 
the month, in this day were broken up all the fountains of the 
great deep, and the windows of the skies were opened. 12. 
And the shower was upon the land forty days and forty nights. 
13. In the self-same day were gone Noah and Shem and Ham 
and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three 
wives of his sons with them, into the ark. 14. They and every 
living thing after its kind, and all cattle after their kind, and 
every creeper that creepeth on the land after its kind, and 
every fowl after its kind, every bird of every wing. 15. And 
they went in unto Noah into the ark, two each of all flesh 
wherein was the breath of life. 16. And they that went in, 
male and female of all flesh went they in, as God had com- 
manded him : and the Lord shut him in. 

17. And the flood was forty days upon the land ; and the 
waters increased and bare up the ark, and it rose from upon 
the land. 18. And the waters prevailed and increased greatly 
upon the land ; and the ark went upon the face of the waters. 
19. And the waters had prevailed exceedingly on the land ; 
and all the high hills that were under the whole skies were 
covered. 20. Fifteen cubits upward had the waters prevailed, 
and the hills were covered. 21. Then expired all flesh that 
creepeth upon the land, in the fowl and in the cattle, and in 
the living thing, and in every crawler that crawleth upon the 
land, and every man. 22. All in whose nostrils was the breath 
of the spirit of life, of all that was in the dry land died. 23. 



192 THE FLOOD. 

Then was wiped away every standing thing which was upon 
the face of the soil, from man to cattle, to creeper and to fowl 
of the skies, and they were wiped away from the land ; and 
there remained only Noah and they that were with him in the 
ark. 24. And the waters prevailed upon the land fifty and a 
hundred days. 

10-16. The date is here given, at which the flood commenced and 
the entrance into the ark was completed. 10. In seven days. On the 
seventh day from the command. 11. In the second month. The 
primeval year commenced about the autumnal equinox ; we may say, on 
the nearest new moon. The rains began about a month or six weeks 
after the equinox, and, consequently, not far from the seventeenth of 
the second month. Ml the fountains of the great deep, and the win- 
dows of the skies. It appears that the deluge was produced by a grad- 
ual commotion of nature on a grand scale. The gathering clouds were 
dissolved into incessant showers. But this was not sufficient of itself 
to effect the overwhelming desolation that followed. The beautiful 
figure of the windows of the skies being opened is preceded by the 
equally striking one of the fountains of the great deep being broken 
up. This was the chief source of the flood. A change in the level 
of the land was accomplished. That which had emerged from the 
waters on the third day of the last creation was now again submerged. 
The waters of the great deep now broke their bounds, flowed in on 
the sunken surface, and drowned the world of man, with all its inhabi- 
tants. 12. The accompanying heavy rain of forty days and nights 
was, in reality, only a subsidiary instrument in the deluging of the 
land. "We may imagine the sinking of the land to have been so gradual 
as to occupy the whole of these forty days of rain. There is an awful 
magnificence in this constant uplifting of the billows over the yielding 
land. 

13-1 G. There is a simple grandeur in the threefold description of 
the entrance of Noah and his retinue into the ark, first in the com- 
mand, next in the actual process during the seven days, and, lastly, in 
the completed act on the seventh day. Every living thing after its 
hind is here unaccompanied with the epithet n^"i evil, or the qualify- 
ing term of the land or of the field, and therefore may, we conceive, 
be taken in the extent of Gen. vi. 20, vii. 2, 3, 6. At all events the 
whole of the wild animals did not need to be included in the ark, as 



GEN. VII. 10-24. 193 

their range was greater than that of antediluvian man or of the flood. 
And the Lord shut him in. This is a fitting close to the scene. The 
whole work was manifestly the Lord's doing, from first to last. The 
personal name of God is appropriately introduced here. For the 
Everlasting now shows himself to be the causer or efFecter of the cov- 
enant blessing promised to Noah. In what way the Lord shut him in 
is an idle question, altogether unworthy of the grandeur of the occa- 
sion. We can tell nothing more than what is written. "We are certain 
that it would be accomplished in a manner worthy of him. 

17-24. The prevalence of the waters. The forty days are now 
completed. And at the end of this period the ark had been afloat for 
a long time. It was drifted on the waters in the direction in which 
they were flowing, and towards what was formerly the higher ground. 

19. Upon the land. The land is to be understood of the portion 
of the earth's surface known to man. This, with an unknown margin 
beyond it, was covered with the waters. But this is all that Scripture 
warrants us to assert. Concerning the distant parts of Europe, the 
continents of Africa, America, or Australia, we can say nothing. All 
the high hills were covered. Not a hill was above water within the ho- 
rizon of the spectator or of man. There were ten generations from 
Adam to Noah -inclusive. We cannot tell what the rate of increase 
was. But, supposing each couple to have ten children, and therefore 
the common ratio to be five, the whole number of births would be about 
five millions, and the population in the time of Noah less than four 
millions. It is probable that they did not scatter further than the ne- 
cessities and conveniences of life demanded. In a fertile region, an 
area equal to that of the British Isles would be amply sufficient for 
four millions of men, women, and children. Let us suppose, then, a 
circle of five hundred miles in diameter inhabited by man. Let this 
occupy the central region of a concentric circle of eight hundred miles 
in diameter. With a centre a little southwest of Mosul, this larger 
circle would reach fifty miles into the Mediterranean, the Euxine, and 
the Caspian, and would probably have touched the Persian Gulf at 
the time of the deluge. If this region were covered with water, it is 
obvious that no land or mountain would be visible to a spectator within 
the inner circle of five hundred miles in diameter. 20. Fifteen cubits 
upward. This was half the depth of the ark. It may have taken this 
draught of water to float it. If so, its grounding on a hill under water 
would indicate the depth of water on its summit. The gradual rise 
of the waters was accomplished by the depression of the land, aided, 
25 



194 THE LAND DRIED. 

possibly, by a simultaneous elevation of the bed of the ocean. The 
water, by the mere necessity of finding its level, overflowed the former 
dry land. The extent of this oscillation of the solid crust of the earth 
is paralleled by the changes of level which geology indicates, the last 
of which took place at the time of the six days' creation. It is possi- 
ble that most of the land that was then raised was now again tempo- 
rarily submerged in the returning waters ; while distant continents 
may have all along existed, which never came within the ken of ante- 
diluvian man. The sobriety and historical veracity of the narrative 
are strikingly exhibited in the moderate height to which the waters 
are said to have risen above the ancient hills. 

21-23. There expired all flesh. The resulting death of all by 
drowning is here recounted. All in whose nostrils was the breath of 
the spirit of life died. This statement refers solely to man, whose 
higher life is exclusively expressed by the phrase d*^H rratJa breath 
of life (Gen. ii. 7). It affirms the death of the whole of mankind. 
23. The sum-total of animal and vegetable life, with the exception of 
those in the ark, is here declared to be extinguished. 

24. Fifty and a hundred days. These, and the forty days of rain, make 
one hundred and ninety days : about six lunar months and thirteen days. 
If to this we add the month and seventeen days before the commence- 
ment of the rain, we have eight months completed, and are therefore 
brought to the first day of the ninth month. The waters may be said to 
prevail as long as the ark had its full draught of water. It is probable 
they were still rising during the first half of the hundred and fifty 
days, and then gradually sinking during the other half. 



XXVI. THE LAND DRIED. — Gen. viii. 1-14. 

1. *iy£ stoop, assuage. 

3. *1DH want, fail, be abated. 

4. btix Ararat, a land forming part of Armenia. It is mentioned 
in 2 Kings xix. 37, and Isa. xxxvii. 38, as the retreat of Adrammelek 
and Sharezer after the murder of their father ; and in Jer. Ii. 27 as a 
kingdom. 

8. \>bp be light, lightened, lightly esteemed, swift. 
10. hyn twist, turn, dance, writhe, tremble, be strong, wait, ^ivj, re- 
main, wait, hope. 
13. anr be drained, desolated, amazed. 



GEN. VIII. 1-14. 195 

VIII. 1. And God remembered Noah, and every living 
tiling, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark ; and 
God made a wind to pass over the land, and the waters as- 
suaged. 2. And the fountains of the deep and the windows 
of the skies were shut ; and the shower from the skies was re- 
strained. 3. And the waters returned gradually from upon 
the land ; and the waters decreased from the end of fifty and 
a hundred days. 

4. And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seven- 
teenth day of the month, upon the hills of Ararat. 5. And 
the waters decreased continually until the tenth month ; in 
the tenth, on the first of the month, the tops of the hills were 
seen. 

6. And it was at the end of forty days that Noah opened 
the windows of the ark which he had made. 7. And sent out 
the raven, and it went forth to and fro, until the waters were 
dried up from upon the land. 8. And he sent the dove from 
with him, to see if the waters were abated from upon the 
face of the soil. 9. And the dove found no rest for the sole 
of her foot, and she returned to him into the ark, for there 
was water on the face of all the land ; and he put forth his 
hand and took her, and brought her to him into the ark. 10. 
And he stayed yet other seven days, and again sent forth the 
dove from the ark. 11. And the dove came in to him in the 
evening ; and, lo, an olive leaf plucked off, in her mouth ; and 
Noah knew that the waters were abated from upon the land. 
12. And he stayed yet other seven days, and sent forth the 
dove, and she returned not again to him. 

13. And it was in the one and six hundredth year, on the 
first of the first month, that the waters were drained from upon 
the land ; and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and saw, 
and, behold, the face of the soil was drained. 14. And in the 
second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, 
was the land dried. 



196 THE LAND DRIED. 

1-3. The waters commence their retreat. And God remembered 
Noah. He is said to remember him when he takes any step to deliver 
him from the waters. The several steps to this end are enumerated. 

A wind. This would promote evaporation, and otherwise aid the 
retreat of the waters. The fountains of the deep and the windows of 
the shies were shut. The incessant and violent showers had continued 
for six weeks. It is probable the weather remained turbid and moist 
for some time longer. In the sixth month, however, the rain probably 
ceased altogether. Some time before this, the depressing of the 
ground had reached its lowest point, and the upheaving had set in. 
This is the main cause of the reflux of the waters. All this is described, 
as we perceive, according to appearance. It is probable that the for- 
mer configuration of the surface was not exactly restored. At all 
events it is not necessary, as the ark may have drifted a considerable 
space in a hundred and fifty days. Some of the old ground on which 
primeval man had trodden may have become a permanent water bed, 
and a like amount of new land may have risen to the light in another 
place. Hence it is vain to seek for a spot retaining the precise condi- 
tions of the primitive Eden. The Euphrates and Tigris may substan- 
tially remain, but the Pishon and Gihon may have considerably 
changed. The Black Sea, the Caspian, the lakes Van and Urumiah 
may cover portions of the Adamic land. At the end of the hundred 
and fifty days the prevalence of the waters begins to turn into a posi- 
tive retreat. 

4, 5. The ark rested. It is stranded on some hill in Ararat. This 
country forms part of Armenia. As the drying wind most probably 
came from the east or north, it is likely that the ark was drifted towards 
Asia Minor, and caught land on some hill in the reaches of the Euphra- 
tes. It cannot be supposed that it rested on either of the peaks now 
called Ararat, as Ararat was a country, not a mountain, and these 
peaks do not seem suitable for the purpose. The seventh month began 
usually with the new moon nearest the vernal equinox, or the 21st of 
March. The tenth month. The waters ceased to prevail on the first 
of the ninth month. The ark, though grounded six weeks before, was 
still deep in the waters. The tops of the hills began to appear a 
month after. The subsiding of the waters seems to have been very 
slow. 

6-12. The. raven and the dove are sent out to bring tidings of the 
external world. Forty days. Before Noah made any experiment he 
seems to have allowed the lapse of forty days to undo the remaining 



GEN. VIIL 1-14. 197 

effect of the forty days' rain. The window. He seems to have been 
unable to take any definite observations through the aperture here 
called a window. The raven found carrion in abundance, floated 
probably on the waters, and did not need to return. This was such a 
token of the state of things as Noah might expect from such a mes- 
senger. He next sends the dove, who returns to him. Yet other seven 
days. This intimates that he stayed seven days also after the raven 
was sent out. The olive leaf plucked* off was a sign of returning 
safety to the land. It is said by Theophrastus (Hist. Plant. 4, 7) and 
Pliny (H. N. 13, 50) that the olive strikes leaves even under water. 
From this event, the olive branch became the symbol of peace, and 
the dove the emblem of the Comforter, the messenger of peace. After 
seven other days, the dove being despatched, returns no more. The 
number seven figures very conspicuously in this narrative. Seven 
days before the showers commence the command to enter the ark is 
given ; and at intervals of seven days the winged messengers are 
sent out. These intervals point evidently to the period of seven days, 
determined by the six days of creation and the seventh day of rest. 
The clean beasts also and the birds are admitted into the ark by seven 
pairs. This points to the sacredness associated with the number aris- 
ing from the hallowed character of the seventh day. The number 
forty also, the product of four, the number of the world or universe, 
and ten the number of completeness, begins here to be employed for a 
complete period in which a process will have run its course. 

13, 14. Noah delays apparently another month, and, on the first day 
of the new year, ventures to remove the covering of the ark and look 
around. The date of the complete drying of the land is then given. 
The interval from the entrance to the exit consists of the following 
periods : 

- Rain continued 40 days. 

Waters prevailed 150 " 

Waters subside 29 " 

Noah delays 40 " 

Sending of raven and dove 20 " 

Another month 29 " 

Interval till 27th of second month 57 " 

Sum-total of days 365 

Hence it appears that the interval was a lunar year of three hun- 
dred and fifty-six days nearly, and ten days ; that is, as nearly as possi- 



198 THE ARK LEFT. 

ble, a solar year. This passage is important on account of the divis- 
ions of time which it brings out at this early epoch. The week of 
seven days is plainly intimated. The lunar month and year are 
evidently known. It is remarkable that the ten additional days bring 
up the lunar year in whole numbers to the solar. It seems a tacit 
agreement with the real order of nature. According to the Hebrew 
text, the deluge commenced in the 1656th year of the race of man. 
According to all texts it occurred in the time of Noah, the ninth in 
descent from Adam. 



XXVII. THE ARE LEFT. —Gen. viii. 15-22. 

19. fins^ hind, clan, family, itriStiJ maidservant ; r. spread. 

20. natB altar ; r. slay animals, sacrifice. 

21. i"&5> whole burnt-offering. That which goes up. Step ; r. go up, 

15. And God spake unto Noah, saying, 16. Come forth 
from the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' 
wives with thee. 17. Every living thing that is with thee, of 
all flesh, the fowl and the cattle, and every creeper that creep- 
eth upon the land, bring forth with thee; and let them breed in 
the land and be fruitful, and multiply upon the land. 18. And 
Noah came forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' 
wives with him. 19. Every living thing, every creeper, and 
every fowl, all that creepeth upon the land, after their families, 
came forth out of the ark. 

20. And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord, and took of 
all clean cattle, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt- 
offerings on the altar. 21. And the Lord smelled the sweet 
savor ; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse 
the soil any more on account of man, because the imagination 
of man's heart is evil from his youth ; neither will I again 
smite any more all living as I have done. 22. Henceforth all 
the days of the earth, sowing and reaping, and cold and heat, 
and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. 



GEN. VIII. 15-22. 199 

15-19. The command to leave the ark is given and obeyed. As 
Noah did not enter, so neither does he leave the ark, without divine 
direction. The fowl, the cattle, and the creeper. Here, again, these 
three classes are specified under the general head of every living 
thing. They are again to multiply on the earth. 19. Every living 
thing. This evidently takes the place of the cattle mentioned before. 
After their families. This word denotes their tribes. It is usually 
applied to families or clans. 

20-22. The offering of Noah accepted. The return to the dry 
land, through the special mercy of God to Noah and his house, is cel- 
ebrated by an offering of thanksgiving and faith. Builded an altar. 
This is the first mention of the altar, or structure for the purpose of 
sacrifice. The Lord is now on high, having swept away the garden, 
and withdrawn his visible presence at the same time from the earth. 
The altar is therefore erected to point towards his dwelling-place on 
high. Unto the Lord. The personal name of God is peculiarly 
appropriate here, as he has proved himself a covenant keeper and a 
deliverer to Noah. Of all clean cattle, and every clean fowl. The 
mention of clean birds renders it probable that these only were taken 
into the ark by seven pairs (Gen. vii. 3). Every fit animal is included 
in this sacrifice, as it is expressive of thanksgiving for a complete 
deliverance. We have also here the first mention of the burnt-offer- 
ing («"ib3>) ; the whole victim, except the skin, being burned on the 
altar. Sacrifice is an act in which the transgressor slays an animal 
and offers it in whole, or in part as representative of the whole, to 
God. In this act he acknowledges his guilt, the claim of the offended 
law upon his life, and the mercy of the Lord in accepting a substitute 
to satisfy this claim for the returning penitent. He at the same time 
actually accepts the mercy of the Most High, and comes forward to 
plead it in the appointed way of reconciliation. The burnt-offering is 
the most perfect symbol of this substitution, and most befitting the 
present occasion, when life has been granted to the inmates of the ark 
amidst the universal death. 

21. The effect of this plea is here described. The Lord smelled 
the sweet savor. He accepted the typical substitute, and, on account 
of the sacrifice, the offerers, the surviving ancestors of the post-dilu- 
vian race. Thus the reentrance of the remnant of mankind upon the 
joys and tasks of life is inaugurated by an articulate confession of sin, 
a well-understood foreshadowing of the coming victim for human 
guilt, and a gracious acceptance of this act of faith. The Lord said 



200 THE AEK LEFT. 

in his heart. It is the inward resolve of his will. The purpose of 
mercy is then expressed in a definite form, suited to the present cir- 
cumstances of the delivered family. I will not again curse the soil any 
more on account of man. This seems at first sight to imply a mitiga- 
tion of the hardship and toil which man was to experience in cultiva- 
ting the ground (Gen. iii. 17). At all events, this very toil is turned 
into a blessing to him who returns from his sin and guilt, to accept the 
mercy, and live to the glory of his Maker and Saviour. But the main 
reference of the passage is doubtless to the curse of a deluge such as 
that which was now past. This will not be renewed. Because the 
imagination of his heart is evil from his youth. This is the reason for 
the past judgment, the curse upon the soil: not for the present promise 
of a respite for the future. Accordingly, it is to be taken in close con- 
nection with the cursing of the soil, of which it assigns the judicial 
cause. It is explanatory of the preceding phrase, on account of man. 
The reason for the promise of escape from the fear of a deluge for the 
future is the sacrifice of Noah, the priest and representative of the 
race, with which the Lord is well pleased. The closing sentence of 
this verse is a reiteration in a more explicit form of the same promise. 
Neither will I again smite all living as I have done. There will be no 
repetition of the deluge that had just overswept the land and destroyed 
the inhabitants. 

22. Henceforth all the days of the earth. After these negative 
assurances come the positive blessings to be permanently enjoyed 
while the present constitution of the earth continues. These are 
summed up in the following terms : 

( Sowing, beginning; in October. , 
Heat, j Reaping, ending in June. 

Cold J Ear1 ^ fmit > in Julv - 

' ( Fruit harvest, ending in September. 

The cold properly occupies the interval between sowing and reap- 
ing, or the months of January and February. From July to Septem- 
ber is the period of heat. In Palestine, the seedtime began in 
October or November, when the wheat was sown. Barley was not 
generally sown till January. The grain harvest began early in May, 
and continued in June. The early fruits, such as grapes and figs, made 
their appearance in July and August ; the full ingathering, in Septem- 
ber and October. But the passage before us is not limited to the 
seasons of any particular country. Besides the seasons, it guarantees 



GEN. Yin. 15-22. 201 

the continuance of the agreeable vicissitudes of day and night. It is 
probable that even these could not be distinguished during part of the 
deluge of waters. At all events, they did not present any sensible 
change when darkness reigned over the primeval abyss., / 

The term of this continuance is here defined. It is to ,-last as long 
as the order of things introduced by the six days' creation endures. 
This order is not to be sempiternal. When the race of man has been 
filled up, it is here hinted that the present system of nature on the 
earth may be expected to give place to another and a higher order of 
things. x 

Here it is proper to observe the mode of Scripture in the promise 
of blessing. In the infancy of mankind, when the eye gazed on the 
present, and did not penetrate into the future, the Lord promised the 
immediate and the sensible blessings of life, because these alone are as 
yet intelligible to the childlike race, and they are, at the same time, the 
immediate earnest of endless blessings. As the mind developes, and 
the observable universe becomes more fully comprehended, these pres- 
ent and sensible sources of creature happiness correspondingly expand, 
and higher and more ethereal blessings begin to dawn upon the mind. 
"When the prospect of death opens to the believer a new and hitherto 
unknown world of reality, then the temporal and corporeal give way 
to the eternal and spiritual. And as with the individual, so is it with 
the race. The present boon is the earnest in hand, fully satisfying the 
existing aspirations of the infantile desire. But it is soon found that 
the present is always the bud of the future i and as the volume of 
promise is unrolled, piece by piece, before the eye of the growing 
race, while the present and the sensible lose nothing of their intrinsic 
value, the opening glories of intellectual and spiritual enjoyment add 
an indescribable zest to the blessedness of a perpetuated life. Let not 
us, then, who flow in the full tide of the latter day, despise the rudi- 
ment of blessing in the first form in which it was conferred on Noah 
and his descendants ; but rather remember tjiat is not the whole con- 
tent of the divine good-will, but only the present shape of an ever- 
expanding felicity, which is limited neither by time nor sense. 
26 



202 THE BLESSING OF NOAH. 



XXVIII. THE BLESSING OF NOAH. — Gen. ix. 1-7. 

2. 2*™ fear, reverence, awful deed, nn dread, breaking of the 
courage. 

IX. 1. And God blessed Noah and his sons ; and he said 
unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. 
2. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon 
every beast of the land, and upon every fowl of the skies : 
with all that creepeth on the soil, and with all the fishes of the 
sea, into your hand are they given. 3. Every creeper that is 
alive shall be food for you : as the green herb have I given you 
all. 4. Only flesh with its life, its blood, shall ye not eat. 5. And 
also your blood of your lives will I require, from the hand of 
every beast will I require it ; and from the hand of man, from 
the hand each of his brother, will I require the life of man. 
6. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be 
shed ; for in the image of God hath he made man. 7. And 
you, be fruitful and multiply ; abound in the earth, and mul- 
tiply therein. § 16. 

Noah is saved from the deluge. His life is twice given to him by 
God. He had found grace in the sight of the Lord, and now he and 
his family have been graciously accepted when they approached the 
Lord with burnt-offerings. In him, therefore, the race of man is to be 
begun anew. Accordingly, a*s at the beginning, the Lord proceeds to 
bless him. 1st. The grant of increase is the same as at first, but 
expressed in ampler terms. 2d. Dominion over the other animals is 
renewed. But some reluctance on their part to yield obedience is 
intimated. The fear and dread of you. These terms give token of 
a master whose power is dreaded, rather than of a superior whose 
friendly protection is sought. Into your hand are they given. They 
are placed entirely at the disposal of man. 

3. The grant of sustenance is no longer confined to the vegetable, 
but extended to the animal kinds, with two solemn restrictions. This 
explains how fully the animals are handed over to the will of man. 



GEN. IX. 1-7. 203 

They were slain for sacrifice from the earliest times. Whether they 
were used for food before this time we are not informed. But now 
every creeper that is alive is granted for food. Every creeper is every 
thing that moves with the body prone to the earth, and therefore in a 
creeping posture. This seems to describe the inferior animals in con- 
tradistinction to man, who walks erect. The phrase that is alive seems 
to exclude animals that have died a natural death from being used as 
food. 

4. The first restriction on the grant of animal food is thus expressed : 
Flesh with its life, its blood, shall ye not eat. The animal must be slain 
before any part of it is used for food. And as it lives so long as the 
blood flows in its veins, the life-blood must be drawn before its flesh 
may be eaten. The design of this restriction is to prevent the horrid 
cruelty of mutilating or cooking an animal while yet alive and capable 
of suffering pain. The draining of the blood from the body is an ob- 
vious occasion of death, and therefore the prohibition to eat the flesh 
with the blood of life is a needful restraint from savage cruelty. It is 
also intended, perhaps, to teach that the life of the animal, which is in 
the blood, belongs not to man, but to God himself, who gave it. He 
makes account of it for atonement in sacrifice ; otherwise it is to be 
poured on the ground and covered with dust (Lev. xvii. 11-13). 

5, 6. The second restriction guards human life. The shedding of 
human blood is sternly prohibited. Your blood of your lives. The 
blood which belongs to your lives, which constitutes the very life of 
your corporeal nature. Will I require. I, the Lord, will find the 
murderer out, and exact the penalty of his crime. The very beast 
that causes the death of man shall be slain. The suicide and the hom- 
icide are alike accountable to God for the shedding of man's blood. 
6. The penalty of murder is here proclaimed, — death for death. It is 
an instance of the law of retaliation. This is an axiom of moral equity. 
He that deprives another of any property is bound to make it good or 
to suffer the like loss. 

The first law promulgated in Scripture was that between Creator 
and creature. If the creature refuse to the Creator the obedience due, 
he forfeits all the Creator has given him, and, therefore, his life. Hence, 
when Cain murdered his brother, he only displayed a new development 
of that sin which was in him, and, being already condemned to the 
extreme penalty under the first transgression, had only a minor punish- 
ment annexed to his personal crime. And so it continued to be in the 
antediluvian world. No civil law is on record for the restriction of 



204 THE BLESSING OF NOAH. 

crime. Cain, indeed, feared the natural vengeance which his con- 
science told him his sin deserved. Bat it was not competent in equity 
for the private individual to undertake the enforcement of the penalties 
of natural law. So long as the law was between Creator and creature, 
God himself was not only the sole legislator, but the sole administrator 
of law. 

The second law is that between creature and creature, which is here 
introduced on the occasion of giving permission to partake of animal 
food, as the first was published on that of granting the use of vegetable 
diet. In the former case, God is the administrator of the law, as he is 
the immediate and sovereign party in the legal compact. In the latter 
case, man is, by the express appointment of the Lord of all, constituted 
the executive agent. By man shall his blood be shed. Here, then, is 
the formal institution of civil government. Here the civil sword is 
committed to the charge of man. The judgment of death by the exe- 
cutioner is solemnly delegated to man in vindication of human life. 
This trust is conveyed in the most general terms. By man. The di- 
vine legislator does not name the sovereign, define his powers, or deter- 
mine the law of succession. All these practical conditions of a stable 
government are left open questions. The emphasis is laid solely on 
man. On man is impressively laid the obligation of instituting a civil 
constitution suited to his present fallen condition. On the nation as a 
body it is an incumbent duty to select the sovereign, to form the civil 
compact between prince and people, to settle the prerogative of the 
sovereign and the rights of the subjects, to fix the order of succession, 
to constitute the legislative, judicial, and administrative bodies, and to 
render due submission to the constituted authorities. And all these 
arrangements are to be made according to the principles of Scripture 
and the light of nature. 

The reason why retribution is exacted in the case of man is here 
also given. For in the image of God has he made man. This points 
on the one hand to the function of the magistrate, and on the other 
to the claims of the violated law ; and in both respects illustrates the 
meaning of being created in the image of God. Man resembles God 
in this, that he is a moral being, judging of right and wrong, endowed 
with reason and will, and capable of holding and exercising rights. 
Hence he is in the first place competent to rule, and on his creation 
authorized to exercise a mild and moral sway over the inferior crea- 
tures. His capacity to govern even among his fellow-men is now 
recognized. The function of self-government in civil things is now 



GEN. IX. 1-7. 205 

conferred upon man. When duly called to the office, he is declared to 
be at liberty to discharge the part of a ruler among his fellow-men, and 
is entitled on the ground of this divine arrangement to claim the obe- 
dience of those who are under his sway. He must rule in the Lord, 
and they must obey in the Lord. 

But, in the next place, man is capable of, and has been actually 
endowed with, rights of property in himself, his children, his indus- 
trial products, his purchases, his receipts in the way of gift, and his 
claims by covenant or promise. He can also recognize such rights in 
another. "When, therefore, he is deprived of anything belonging to 
him, he is sensible of being wronged, and feels that the wrongdoer is 
bound to make reparation by giving back that which he has taken 
away, or an equivalent in its place. This is the law of requital, which 
is the universal principle of justice between the wrongdoer and the 
wrong-sufferer. Hence the blood of him who sheds blood is to be 
shed. And, in setting up a system of human government, the most 
natural and obvious case is given, according to the manner of Scripture, 
as a sample of the law by which punishment is to be inflicted on the 
transgressor in proportion to his crime. The case in point accordingly 
arises necessarily out of the permission to use animal food, which 
requires to be guarded on the one hand by a provision against cruelty 
to animals, and, on the other, by an enactment forbidding the taking 
away of human life, on the pain of death, by order of the civil magis- 
trate. This case, then, turns out to be the most heinous crime which 
man can commit against his fellow-man, and strikingly exemplifl.es the 
great common principle of retributive justice. 

The brute is not a moral being, and has, therefore, no proper rights 
in itself. Its blood may therefore be shed with impunity. Neverthe- 
less, man, because he is a moral being, owes a certain negative duty to 
the brute animal, because it is capable of pain. He is not to inflict 
gratuitous or unnecessary suffering on a being susceptible of such 
torture. Hence the propriety of the blood being shed before the flesh 
is used for food. Life, and therefore the sense of pain, is extinguished 
when the blood is withdrawn from the veins. 



206 THE COVENANT WITH NOAH. 



XXIX. THE COVENANT WITH NOAH. — Gen. ix. 8-17. 



13. rv£J|2 bow ; r. be bent. 

14. *)5S cover, cast over ; n. cloud. 



8. And God said unto Noah, and to his sons with him, say- 
ing, 9. And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and 
with your seed after you, 10. And with every breathing' 
living thing that is with you, in the fowl, in the cattle, and in 
every beast of the land with you, from all that come out of 
the ark to every beast of the land. 11. And I have estab- 
lished my covenant with you ; and all flesh shall not be cut 
off any more by the waters of a flood, neither shall there be 
any more a flood to destroy the land. 

12. And God said, This is the token of the covenant which 
I give between me and you and every breathing living thing 
that is with you for perpetual ages : 13. My bow have I given 
in the cloud, and it shall be a token of a covenant between me 
and the land. 14. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a 
cloud over the land, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud. 
15. And I will remember my covenant, which is between me 
and you and every breathing living thing of all flesh ; and 
the water shall no more be a flood to destroy all flesh. 16. And 
the bow shall be in the cloud, and I will look upon it, to 
remember the perpetual covenant between God and every 
breathing living thing of all flesh that is upon the land. 

17. And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the cov- 
enant, which I have established between me and all flesh that 
is rijpon the land. 1 12. 

The covenant made with Noah (Gen. vi. 18) is now formally con- 
firmed. The purpose conceived in the heart (Gen. viii. 21) now re- 
ceives significant expression. Not only a new blessing is bestowed, 
but also a new covenant is formed with Noah. For he that has offered 



GEN. IX. 8-17. 207 

an acceptable sacrifice is not only at peace with God, but renewed in 
mind after the image of God. He is therefore a fit subject for enter- 
ing into a covenant. 

8-11. Unto Noah and to his sons. God addresses the sons of 
Noah as the progenitors of the future race. 9. / establish. He not 
merely makes (!"H3), but ratines, his covenant with them. My covenant. 
The covenant which was before mentioned to Noah in the directions 
concerning the making of the ark, and which was really, though tacitly, 
formed with Adam in the garden. 

9, 10. The party with whom God now enters into covenant is here 
fully described. You and your seed after you, and every breathing 
living thing ; the latter merely on account of the former. The animals 
are specially mentioned because they partake in the special benefit of 
preservation from a flood, which is guaranteed in this covenant. There 
js a remarkable expression employed here, ■ — From all that come out of 
the ark, to every beast of the land. It seems to imply that the beast 
of the land, or the wild beast, was not among those that came out of 
the ark, and, therefore, not among those that went in. This coincides 
with the view we have given of the inmates of the ark. 

11. The benefits conferred by this form of God's covenant are here 
specified. First, all flesh shall no more be cut off by a flood ; secondly, 
the land shall no more be destroyed by this means. The Lord has 
been true to his promise in saving Noah and his family from the flood 
of waters. He now perpetuates his promise by assuring him that the 
land would not again be overwhelmed with water. This is the new 
and present blessing of the covenant. Its former blessings are not 
abrogated, but only confirmed and augmented by the present. Other 
and higher benefits will flow out of this to those who rightly receive 
it, even throughout the ages of eternity. The present benefit is shared 
by the whole race descended from Noah. 

12-16. The token of the covenant is now pointed out. For perpet- 
ual ages. This stability of sea and land is to last during the remainder 
of the human period. What is to happen when the race of man is 
completed, is not the question at present. 13. My bow. As God's 
covenant is the well-known and still remembered compact formed with 
man when the command was issued in the Garden of Eden, so God's 
bow is the primeval arch, coexistent with the rays of light and the 
drops of rain. It is caused by the rays of the sun reflected from the 
falling raindrops at a particular angle to the eye of the spectator. A 
beautiful arch of reflected and refracted light is in this way formed for 



208 THE COVENANT WITH NOAH. 

every eye. The rainbow is thus an index that the sky is not wholly 
overcast, since the sun is shining through the shower, and thereby 
demonstrating its partial extent. There could not, therefore, be a 
more beautiful or fitting token that there shall be no more a flood to 
sweep away all flesh and destroy the land. It comes with its mild 
radiance only when the cloud condenses into a shower. It consists 
of heavenly light, variegated in hue, and mellowed in lustre, filling 
the beholder with an involuntary pleasure. It forms a perfect arch, 
extends as far as the shower extends, connects heaven and earth, and 
spans the horizon. In these respects it is a beautiful emblem of mercy 
rejoicing against judgment, of light from heaven irradiating and beat- 
ifying the soul, of grace always sufficient for the need of the reunion 
of earth and heaven, and of the universality of the offer of salvation. 
Have I given. The rainbow existed as long as the present laws of 
light and air. But it is now mentioned for the first time, because it 
now becomes the fitting sign of security from another universal deluge, 
which is the peculiar blessing of the covenant in its present form. In 
the cloud. When a shower-cloud is spread over the sky, the bow 
appears, if the sun, the cloud, and the spectator are in the proper re- 
lation to one another. 16. And I will look upon it to remember. The 
Scripture is most unhesitating and frank in ascribing to God all the 
attributes and exercises of personal freedom. While man looks on 
the bow to recall the promise of God, God himself looks on it to re- 
member and perform this promise. Here freedom and immutability 
of purpose meet. 

The covenant here ostensibly refers to the one point of the absence, 
for all time to come, of any danger to the human race from a deluge. 
But it presupposes and supplements the covenant with man subsisting 
from the very beginning. It is clearly of grace ; for the Lord in the 
very terms affirms the fact that the imagination of man's heart is evil 
from his youth, while at the same time the original transgression be- 
longed to the whole race. The condition by which any man becomes 
interested in it is not expressed, but easily understood from the nature 
of a covenant, a promise, and a sign, all of which require of us con- 
senting faith in the party who covenants, promises, and gives the sign. 
The meritorious condition of the covenant of grace is dimly shadowed 
forth in the burnt-offerings which Noah presented on coming out of 
the ark. One thing, however, was surely and clearly revealed to the 
early saints ; namely, the mercy of God. Assured of this, they were 
prepared humbly to believe that all would redound to the glory of his 



GEN. IX. 18-29. 209 

holiness, justice, and truth, as well as of his mercy, grace, and lore, 
though they might not yet fully understand how this would be accom- 
plished. 

17. God seems here to direct Noah's attention to a rainbow actually 
existing at the time in the sky, and presenting to the patriarch the 
assurance of the promise, with all the impressiveness of reality. 



XXX. THE PROPHECY OF NOAH. -Gen. ix. 18-29. 

18. "jSttB Kena'an, bowed down. 

19. ffia break, scatter, spread. y^Q break, scatter, flow. 

20. d^3 orchard, vineyard. 

21. y^wine; r. ferment. 

18. And the sons of Noah that came forth from the ark, 
were Sheni and Ham and Japheth ; and Ham was the father 
of Kenaan. 19. These three were the sons of Noah ; and of 
them was the whole land overspread. 

20. And Noah began to be a man of the soil ; and he planted 
a vineyard. 21. And he drank of the wine, and was drunken ; 
and he was uncovered in the midst of his tent. 22. And 
Ham, the father of Kenaan, saw the nakedness of his father ; 
and he told his two brethren without. 23. And Shem and 
Japheth took the garment and laid it on the shoulder of them 
both, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their 
father ; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their 
father's nakedness. 24. And Noah awoke from his wine, and 
knew what his youngest son had done unto him. 25. And he 
said, 

Cursed be Kenaan. 

A servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. 
26. And he said, 

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem ; 
And Kenaan shall be servant unto them. 
27 



210 THE PROPHECY OE NOAH. 

27. God shall enlarge Japheth, 

And he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; 
And Kenaan shall be servant unto them. 

28. And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty 
years. 29. And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and 
fifty years, and he died. IT 13. 

After the blessing on the new heads of the human race has been 
pronounced, and the covenant with them renewed, we are prepared 
for a new development of human action. This appears, however, in 
the form of an event which is itself a meet preliminary to the subse- 
quent stage of affairs. The prophecy of Noah, delivered in the shape 
of a solemn paternal doom, pronounced upon his three sons, sketches 
in a few striking traits the future history of the separate families of 
mankind. 

18, 19. The two verses form a connecting link between the preceding 
and the following passage. After the recital of the covenant, comes 
naturally the statement, that by the three sons of Noah, duly enumer- 
ated, was the whole land overspread. This forms a fit conclusion 
to the previous paragraph. But the penman of these sentences had 
evidently the following paragraph in view. For he mentions that 
Ham was the father of Kenaan ; which is plainly the preface to the 
following narrative. 

20-27. Then comes the prediction, which has a peculiar interest, as 
the first prophetic utterance of man recorded in the Old Testament. 
The occasion of it is first stated. Noah becomes a man of the soil. 
If he was before a mechanic, it is evident he must now attend to the 
cultivation of the soil, that he may draw from it the means of subsist- 
ence. He planted a vineyard. God was the first planter ( Gen. ii. 8) ; 
and since that time we hear nothing of the cultivation of trees till 
Noah becomes a planter. The cultivation of the vine and the manu- 
facture of wine might have been in practice before this time, as the 
mention of them is merely incidental to the present narrative. But it 
seems likely from what follows, that, though grapes may have been in 
use, wine had not been extracted from them. And was drunken. We 
are not in a position to estimate the amount of Noah's guilt in this case, 
as we do not know how far he was acquainted with the properties of 
wine. But we should take warning by the consequences, and beware 
of the abuse of any of God's gifts. 22. Ham the father of Kenaan. 



GEN. IX. 18-29. 211 

It is natural to suppose, as some have done, that Kenaan had some- 
thing to do with the guilt of this act. But there is no clear indication 
of this in the text, and Kenaan's relationship to Ham may be again 
mentioned simply in anticipation of the subsequent prophecy. Ham 
is punished in his youngest son, who was perhaps a favorite. 23. The 
intention of this act is eminently pure and befitting dutiful sons. The 
garment. The loose mantle or shawl which was used for wrapping 
round the body when going to sleep. 24. The actions of the sons in 
this unpleasant occurrence, especially that of Ham, give occasion to 
the following prophetic sentence: His youngest son. This seems 
plainly the meaning of the phrase "jEl^ i33 his son the little. He must 
be regarded here as contrasted with the other two, and therefore dis- 
tinguished as the youngest. 

The manner of Scripture here is worthy of particular remark. First, 
the prediction takes its rise from a characteristic incident. The con- 
duct of the brothers was of comparatively slight importance in itself, 
but in the disposition which it betrayed it was highly significant. Sec- 
ondly, the prediction refers in terms to the near future and to the 
outward condition of the parties concerned. Thirdly, it foreshadows 
under these familiar phrases the distant future, and the inward, as 
well as the outward, state of the family of man. Fourthly, it lays out 
the destiny of the whole race from its very starting-point. These 
simple laws will be found to characterize the main body of the predic- 
tions of Scripture. 

25-27. The prophecy consists of two parts, — a malediction and a 
benediction. 25. Cursed be Kenaan. A curse (Gen. iii. 14, 17, 
iv. 11) is any privation, inferiority, or other ill, expressed in the form 
of a doom, and bearing, not always upon the object directly expressed, 
but upon the party who is in the transgression. Thus the soil is cursed 
on account of Adam the transgressor (Gen. iii. 17). It is apparent 
that in the present case the prime mover was Ham, who is therefore 
punished in the prospect of a curse resting on his posterity, and espe- 
cially on a particular line of it. Let us not imagine, however, that the 
ways of the Lord are not equal in this matter ; for Kenaan and his 
descendants no doubt abundantly deserved this special visitation. And 
as the other descendants of Ham are not otherwise mentioned in the 
prophecy, we may presume that they shared in the curse pronounced 
upon Kenaan. At all events, they are not expressly included in the 
blessing pronounced on the other two divisions of the human family. 
It is proper to observe, also, that this prediction does not affirm an 



212 THE PROPHECY OF NOAH. 

absolute perpetuity in the doom of Ham or Kenaan. It only delineates 
their relative condition until the whole race is again brought within 
the scope of prophecy. 

A servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. The curse here 
consists in servitude, which is in itself an inferiority, and, among the 
children of self-will, tends more and more to all the horrid ills of 
slavery. Slavery originated in war and conquest. The mere warrior 
put the captives to death, the cannibal devoured them, the economist 
fed them for their labor. Accordingly, slavery soon made its appear- 
ance in all countries which were trodden by the conqueror. A system 
of slavery, imposed without consent and for no crime, is a dire evil. 
Besides the direct injustice of robbing a fellow-man of his personal 
liberty, it dissolves wedlock, breaks the family tie, and disregards the 
conscience. It trades, therefore, in the souls as well as the bodies of 
men. It is a historical fact that the degradation of slavery has fallen 
especially upon the race of Ham. A portion of the Kenaanites became 
bondsmen among the Israelites, who were of the race of Shem. The 
early Babylonians, the Phoenicians, the Carthaginians, and Egyptians, 
who all belonged to the race of Ham, were subjugated by the Assyrians, 
who were Shemites, the Persians, the Macedonians, and the Romans, 
who were all Japhethites. And in modern times it is well known that 
most of the nations of Europe traded in African slaves. A servant of 
servants means a slave of the most abject kind. Unto his brethren. 
If the doom of slavery be referred to the race of Ham, then his breth- 
ren are the descendants of Japheth and Shem, who have held many 
of the Hamites in bondage. If we limit the sentence to Kenaan, then 
his brethren may include the other descendants of Ham. It is said 
that the servile tribe is also the most tyrannical ; and it is the fact 
that the Africans have lent themselves to the forcible seizing and 
selling into slavery in distant lands of their own kinsmen and fellow- 
countrymen. 

26, 27. And he said. The prediction concerning the other two 
brothers is a distinct utterance of Noah. Blessed be Jehovah, the God 
of Shem. The characteristic boon of Shem is that Jehovah, the one 
true, living, known God, is his God. The knowledge and worship of 
the Creator is preserved in the family of Shem, when it is lost or 
fatally obscured among the other descendants of Noah. The prophet 
is so conscious of the unspeakable blessing of knowing and loving the 
true God, that he breaks out into thanksgiving in the very act of 
announcing the transcendent privilege of Shem. There is a dark side, 



GEN. IX. 18-29. 213 

however, to this prophetic thought, as it implies that the two other 
families of mankind, at least for part of the period under the prophet's 
view, were estranged from the true and living God. History corrob- 
orates both aspects of this prophetic sentence for the space of two 
thousand four hundred years. During the most part of this long 
period the Holy Jehovah Omnipotent was unknown to the great mass 
of the Japhethites, Hamites, and even Shemites. And it was only by 
the special election and consecration of an individual Shemite to be 
the head of a peculiar people, and the father of the faithful, that he 
did not cease to be the God of even a remnant of Shem. 

Then follows the refrain, And Kenaan shall be servant unto them. 
The phrase unto them proves that Shem here comprehends the race 
descended from him, and consisting of many individuals. Scripture 
sees the race in the father, traces up its unity to him, discerns in 
him the leading traits of character that often mark his remotest pos- 
terity, and identifies with him in destiny all those of his race who 
continue to take after him. Thus Adam denotes the whole race, Shem, 
Ham, and Japheth, its three great branches. Attention to this law of 
the unity, continuity, and identity of a race, will aid us much in under- 
standing the dealings of Providence with the several branches of the 
human family. We learn also from the same phrase that this solemn 
sentence is no mere ebullition of the personal feelings of Noah. He 
is not speaking of Shem and Kenaan merely, but of the future races 
that are to spring from them. This appears still more plainly from 
the fact that Japheth, as well as Ham, is described as long estranged 
from the true God. And now that we are on spiritual ground, it 
ought to be observed that Kenaan's curse is not exclusion, either 
present or prospective, from the mercy of God. That is an evil he 
brings on himself by a voluntary departure from the living God. The 
curse merely affects the body, — the personal liberty. It is a mere 
degradation from some of the natural rights of our common humanity ; 
and does not of itself cut him off from any offer of mercy, or benefit of 
repentant faith. 

God shall enlarge Japheth. God is here spoken of by his generic 
name. This intimates, or at least coincides, with the fact that Japheth 
did not continue that nearness of approach to him which is implied in 
the use of the personal name. There is in the original a play upon 
the word Japheth, which itself signifies enlargement. This enlarge- 
ment is the most striking point in the history of Japheth, who is the 
progenitor of the inhabitants of Europe, Asia, and America, except 



214 THE PEOPHECY OE NOAH. 

the region between the Persian Gulf, the Bed Sea, the Mediterranean, 
the Euxine, the Caspian, and the mountains beyond the Tigris, which 
was the main seat of the Shemites. This expansive power refers not 
only to the territory and the multitude of the Japhethites, but also to 
their intellectual and active faculties. The metaphysics of the Hindoos, 
the philosophy of the Greeks, the military prowess of the Romans, 
and the modern science and civilization of the world, are due to the 
race of Japheth. And though the moral and the spiritual were first 
developed among the Shemites, yet the Japhethites have proved 
themselves capable of rising to the heights of these lofty themes, and 
have elaborated that noble form of human speech, which was adopted, 
in the providence of God, as best fitted to convey to mankind that 
further development of Old Testament truth which is furnished in the 
New. 

And he shall dwell in the tents of Shem. We regard Japheth as 
the subject of this sentence ; because, if God were its subject, the 
meaning would be substantially the same as the blessing of Shem, 
already given, and because this would intermingle the blessing of 
Shem with that of Japheth, without any important addition to our 
information. Whereas, when Japheth is the subject of the sentence, 
we learn that he shall dwell in the tents of Shem — an altogether new 
proposition. This form of expression does not indicate a direct inva- 
sion and conquest of the land of Shem, which would not be in keeping 
with the blessing pronounced on him in the previous sentence : it 
rather implies that this dwelling together would be a benefit to Japheth, 
and no injury to Shem. Accordingly, we find that when the Persians 
conquered the Babylonian empire, they restored the Jews to their 
native land ; when Alexander the Great conquered the Persians, he 
gave protection to the Jews ; and when the Romans subdued the 
Greek monarchy, they befriended the chosen nation, and allowed 
them a large measure of self-government. In their time came the 
Messiah, and instituted that new form of the church of the Old Testa- 
ment which not only retained the best part of the ancient people of 
God, but extended itself over the whole of Europe, the chief seat of 
Japheth ; went with him wherever he went ; and is at this day, through 
the blessing of God on his political and moral influence, penetrating 
into the moral darkness of Ham, as well as the remainder of Shem 
and Japheth himself. Thus, in the highest of all. senses, Japheth is 
dwelling in the tents of Shem. 

Again comes the refrain, And Keenan shall be servant unto them. 



GEN. IX. 18-29. 215 

A portion of Japheth still holds a portion of Ham in bondage. But 
this very bondage has been the means of bringing some of the sons of 
Ham to dwell in the tents of Shem ; and the day is not far distant 
when Japheth will relinquish altogether the compulsory hold upon his 
brother, and consecrate his entire moral influence over him to the 
revival in his race of the knowledge and love of God our Father, and 
our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Thus it appears that the destiny of these three great branches of the 
Noachic family, during the time of their separation on the high ques- 
tion of their relation to God, is traced out with great fidelity in this 
remarkable prediction. Ham is aptly represented by Kenaan, the 
slave, who is seized, enslaved, and sold even by his kinsmen to one 
another, and to the descendants of Shem and Japheth. Shem includes 
within his posterity the select family who know God as the Lord, the 
God of promise, of mercy, of salvation. Japheth is enlarged by God, 
and at length becomes acquainted with him whom he once ignorantly 
worshipped. The historian recognizes these as salient points in the 
experience of the three races, so long as they continue apart. The 
time is approaching when this strange intermediate development will 
come to a happy issue, in the reunion of all the members of the human 
family, according to clearer and further-reaching prophecies yet to be 
delivered. 

28, 29. The history of Noah is now closed, in the customary form of the 
fifth chapter. This marks a connection between the third and fourth 
documents, and points to one hand as the composer, or at least compiler, 
of both. The document now closed could not have had the last para- 
graph appended to it till after the death of Noah. But, with the 
exception of these two verses, it might have been composed hundreds 
of years before. This strongly favors the notion of a constant contin- 
uator, or, at all events, continuation of the sacred history. Every 
new prophet and inspired writer whom God raised up added the 
necessary portion and made the necessary insertions in the sacred 
record. And hence the Word of God had a progressive growth and 
adaptation to the successive ages of the church. 

The present document stands between the old world and the new. 
Hence it has a double character, being the close of the antediluvian 
history, and the introduction to that of the postdiluvian race. It 
records a great event, pregnant with warning to all future generations 
of men. And it notes the delegation, by God to man, of authority to 
punish the murderer by death, and therefore to enforce all the minor 



216 THE PROPHECY OF NOAH. 

sanctions of law for breaches of the civil compact. It therefore points 
out the institution of civil government as coming from God, and clearly 
exhibits the accountability of all governments to God for all the pow- 
ers they hold, and for the mode in which they are exercised. This 
also is a great historical lesson for all ages. 



SECTION VIII. — THE NATIONS. 



XXXI. JAPHETH. — Gen. x. 1-5. 

2. *i£a Gomer, completion ; r. complete ; Kt/x/Acpiot. Jriaa Magog, 
Caucasian, Skyth. I'm Madai, middle : Mede. "pj Javan ; lacov ; 
Sanscr., Javana ; Old Pers., Juna. blft Tubal ; Ti/?ap??voi. *ftt5n Me- 
shek, drawing possession, valor ; Moo^ou yx\ Tiras ; ©pa£. 

3. I33dx Ashkenaz, 'Ao-Kawos. Jn5"n Riphath, op?? 'PiVaia. frff^ 
Togarmah, Thorgom, ancestor of the Armenians. 

4. fTBffcsj Elishah ; *H\is 'EAAa?, AioXas. 1B*wn Tarshish, 6rea&- 
*»^r, fastness : Tartessus, Tarsus, Tyrseni. gftfja Kittim, smiters ; 
Citienses ; Kapes ; fi* 5 ?*?*! Dodanim, Dodona, Dardani. 

5. ^X meadow, land reached by water, island ; r. be marked off or 
bounded (by a water line), ■»*£ nation ; r. 5e 6ora ; yeyaao-i. 

X. 1. And these are the generations of the sons of Noah : 
Shem, Ham, and Japheth ; and unto them were born sons after 
the flood. 2. The sons of Japheth : Gomer and Magog and 
Madai and Javan and Tubal and Meshek and Tiras. 3. 
And the sons of Gomer : Ashkenaz and Riphath and Togar- 
mah. 4. And the sons of Javan : Elishah and Tarshish Kit- 
tim and Dodanim. 5. From these were divided the isles of 
the nations in their lands, every one after his tongue, after 
their families, in their nations. 

The fifth document relates to the generations of the sons of Noah. 
It presents first a genealogy of the nations, and then an account of the 
distribution of mankind into nations, and their dispersion over the 
earth. This is the last section which treats historically of the whole 
human race. Only in incidental, didactic, or prophetic passages do 
we again meet with mankind as a whole in the Old Testament. 
28 



218 JAPHETH. 

The present chapter signalizes a new step in the development of the 
human race. They pass from the one family to the seventy nations. 
This great process covers the space of time from Noah to Abraham. 
During this period the race was rapidly increasing under the covenant 
made with Noah. From Shem to Abraham were ten generations in- 
clusive ; and, therefore, if we suppose the same rate of increase after 
as we have supposed before, there would be about fifteen millions 
of inhabitants when Abraham was thirty years of age. If, however, 
we take eight as the average of a family, and suppose eleven genera- 
tions after Shem at the hundredth year of Abraham's life, we have 
about thirty millions of people on the earth. The average of the three 
sons of Noah is higher than this ; for they had sixteen sons, and we 
may suppose as many daughters, making in all thirty-two, and, there- 
fore, giving ten children to each household. The present chapter does 
not touch on the religious aspect of human affairs : it merely presents 
a table of the primary nations, from which all subsequent nationalities 
have been derived. 

1-2. The sons of Japheth. Japheth is placed first, because he was, 
most probably, the eldest brother (Gen. ix. 24; x. 21), and his de- 
scendants were the most numerous and most widely spread from the 
birthplace of mankind. The general description of their territory is 
" the isles of the nations." These were evidently maritime countries, 
or such as were reached by sea. These coast-lands were preem- 
inently, but not exclusively, the countries bordering on the north side 
of the Mediterranean and its connected, waters. They are said to 
belong to the nations, because the national form of association was 
more early and fully developed among them than among the other 
branches of the race. There is, probably, a relic of Japheth in the 
Ia7rero5, Japetus of the Greeks, said to be the son of Uranus (heaven), 
and Gaea (earth), and father of Prometheus, and thus in some way 
connected with the origin or preservation of the human race. 

Fourteen of the primitive nations spring from Japheth. Seven of 
these are of immediate descent. ( 1 ) Gomer is mentioned again, in 
Ezekiel (xxxviii. 6), as the ally of Gog, by which the known existence 
of the nation at that period is indicated. Traces of this name are 
perhaps found in the Kt/A/xeptot (Horn. Odys. xi. 14; Herod, i. 15 ; iv. 
12), who lay in the dark north, in the Krimea, the Kimbri who dwelt 
in north Germany, the Kymry, Cambri, and Cumbri who occupied 
Britain. These all belong to the race now called Keltic, the first 
wave of population that reached the Atlantic. Thus the Tojxapus of 



GEN. X. 1-5. 219 

Joseplius (Ant. i. 6. 1) may even be identified with the Galatae. 
This nation seems to have lain to the north of the Euxine, and to have 
spread out along the southern coasts of the Baltic into France, Spain, 
and the British Isles. 

(2) Magog is mentioned, by Ezekiel (xxxviii. 6), as the people 
of which Gog was the prince. It is introduced in the Apocalypse (xx. 
8), as a designation of the remote nations who had penetrated to the 
ends or corners of the earth. This indicates a continually progressing 
people, occupying the north of Europe and Asia, and crossing, it may 
be, over into America. They seem to have been settled north of the 
Caspian, and to have wandered north and east from that point. They 
are accordingly identified by Josephus (Ant. i. 6. 1) with the Skyths, 
and include the Mongols among other Skythic tribes. 

(3) Madai has given name to the Medes, who occupied the southern 
shore of the Caspian. From this region they penetrated southward 
to Hindostan. 

(4) Javan is traced in the Iaoves, Iones, who settled in the coasts 
of the Aegean, in Peloponnesus, Attica, and subsequently on the coast 
of Asia Minor, and accordingly denotes the Greeks in the language of 
the Old Testament (Isa. lxvi. 19 ; Ezek. xxvii. 13 ; Dan. viii. 21). 
The name Yunau is found in the cuneiform inscriptions of the times 
of Sargon, referring to a western people. 

(5) Tubal and (G) Meshek are generally associated. Ezekiel 
(xxvii. 13, xxxviii. xxxix.) connects them, on the one hand, with 
Magog, and on the other, with Javan. Josephus (Ant. i. 6. 1) finds 
Tubal in Iberia, and Meshek in Cappadocia, tracing the name in 
Mazaca. Their names are seemingly detected in the Tibareni and 
Moschi, and their seat was probably between the Euxine and the Cas- 
pian, whence they spread themselves northward and westward. The 
names of the rivers Tobal and Mosqua bear a strong resemblance to 
these patriarchal names. 

(7) Tiras is referred by Josephus to Thrace. The name is per- 
haps discernible in the Tyras or Dniester. The seat of the nation 
was east of the Euxine, whence it spread to the north. Thus we have 
the original starting-points of these seven nations about the Caspian, 
the Euxine, and the Aegean Seas. 

3. Gomer has three sons, who are the founders of as many nations. 
(8) Ashkenaz is supposed to have lain south of the Euxine, and to be 
traceable in its original name a£ei/os, and in the Ascanius and Ascania 
of Bithynia, perhaps in Scandinavia. Part of the nation may have 



220 JAPHETH. 

migrated to Germany, which is called Ashkenaz by the Jews, and 
where the word Sachsen (Saxon) occurs. It perhaps contains the root 
of the name Asia. (9) Riphath seems to have travelled north, and 
left his name in the Rhipaean mountains. Josephus, however, places 
him in Paphlagonia, where the name Tobata occurs (Diphath) (1 Chr. 
i. 6). (10) Togarmah is said to have been settled in Armenia. By a 
tradition in Moses Chorenensis, Haik, the ancestor of the Armenians, 
is the son of Thorgom, the son of Gomer. At all events, the Black 
Sea might convey colonies from Gomer to Asia Minor and Armenia. 

4. Javan has four sons, who are the heads of nations. (11) Elishah 
is noted by Ezekiel (xxvii. 7) as a nation whose maritime country 
produced purple, which agrees with the coast of Laconia or the Corin- 
thian Gulf. The name has been variously sought in Elis, Hellas, and 
Aeolis. The last is due to Josephus. It is possible that Elea or 
Velia, in the south of Italy, may contain some reference to the name. 
(12) Tarshish is conjectured by Josephus to be the people of Cilicia; 
which, he affirms, was anciently called Tharsus, and the capital of 
which was Tarsus. But whether this be the primitive seat of Tarshish 
or not, it is almost certain that Spain retains the name, if not in Tarraco, 
at least in Tartessus. (13) Kittlm is discovered, by Josephus, in Cyprus, 
where we meet with the town of Citium (Kltlov). He adds, however, 
that all the islands and the greater part of the seacoasts are called 
XeSi/A by the Hebrews. We may therefore presume that the Kittim 
spread into northern Greece, where we have a Kltlov in Macedonia, 
and ultimately into Italy, which is designated as " the isles of Kittim " 
(Num. xxiv. 24; Isa. xxiii. 1 ; Jer. ii. 10 ; Ezek. xxvii. 6 ; Dan. xi. 
30.) (14) Dodanim leaves a trace, perhaps, in Dodona, an ancient 
site of the Hellenes in Epirus, and perhaps in Dardania, a district of 
Illyricum. 

5. Thus we have discovered the ancient seats of Japheth ('Ia7reTos) 
around the Caspian, the Euxine, the Aegean, and the north of the 
Mediterranean. From these coast-lands they seem to have spread over 
Europe, northern, western, and southern Asia, and, both by Behring's 
Straits and the Atlantic, they at length poured into America. So true 
is it that Japheth was enlarged, and that by them were " the isles of 
the nations divided." 

In their nations. We here note the characteristics of a nation. 1st. 
It is descended from one head. Others may be occasionally grafted 
on the original stock by intermarriage. But there is a vital union 
subsisting between all the members and the head, in consequence of 



GEN. X. 6-20. 221 

which the name of the head is applied to the whole body of the nation. 
In the case of Kittim and Dodanim we seem to have the national 
name thrown back upon the patriarchs, who may have themselves been 
called Keth and Dodan. Similar instances occur in the subsequent 
parts of the genealogy. 2d. A nation has a country or " land " which 
it calls its own. In the necessary migrations of ancient tribes, the 
new territories appropriated by the tribe, or any part of it, were natu- 
rally called by the old name, or some name belonging to the old 
country. This is well illustrated by the name of Gomer, which seems 
to reappear in the Cimmerii, the Cimbri, the Cymri, the Cambri, and 
the Cumbri. 3d. A nation has its own " tongue." This constitutes at 
once its unity in itself and its separation from others. Many of the 
nations in the table may have spoken cognate tongues, or even origi- 
nally the same tougue. Thus the Kenaanite, Phoenician, and Punic 
nations had the same stock of languages with the Shemites. But it is 
a uniform law, that one nation has only one speech within itself. 4th. 
A nation is composed of many " families," clans, or tribes. These 
branch off from the nation in the same manner as it did from the 
parent stock of the race. 



XXXn. HAM. — Gen. x. 6-20. 

6. D^2£? Mitsraim. ^xn straitness, limit, pressure, Ttett distress, 
siege, mound, bulwark; Egypt. ff^XB perhaps double Egypt, lower 
and upper, atts Put, troubled. 

7. sanD Seba, drinking (man, Ethiop.). J"inn& Sabtah. rrasn Ra- 
f mah, shaking, trembling. MMfi Sabtekha. K313 Sheba, captive ? yv*i 
Dedan, going slowly f 

8. "TWO Nimrod, strong, rebel. 

10. ^BB Babel ; r. pour, mingle, confound. T\^. Erek, length, ^iBX 
Akkad, fortress. i"t3^3 Kalneh. 'nSSiB Shin'ar. 

TV .. . _ t : • 

11. STjpa Nineveh, dwelling*! w nh'rn Rechoboth e ir, streets of a 
city. r&3 Kelach, completion, end, age. 

12. *,cn Resen, bridle, bit. 

13. tn^ Ludim, born ? D'roi? 'Anamim, possession, sheep. bTCSrA 
Lehabim, fiery, flaming ? tifiPBS Naphtuchim, opening. 

14. D^D-iPB Pathrusim. trnbOB Kasluchim. BtfWfl^J Pelishtim, 
AWofoXoi ; r. break, scatter ; Aeth. migrate. D^'fiBB Kaphtorim ; r. 
crown, capital. 



222 HAM. 

15. "p-PS Tsidon, hunting, nn Chetli, breaking, affrighting. 
1 G. itp^i'i Jebusi ; r. fr*ea<£ rtb» Eniori ; r. ,Say, fo fo'^rA. i^fa^a 
Girgashi ; r. clay, clod. 

17. isjn Chivvi ; r. /*Ve. *p*Sj 'Arqi ; r. #waz#, sftfw^r. ^p Sini; r. 

18. ^Tjtf Arvadi ; r. roam, ramble, ^os Tsemari ; n. wool; v. 
c<wer. inan Chamathi ; n. fastness ; v. guard. 

1 9. "na Gerar ; r. c?r«w, saw, abide. WS \Azzah, strong, dip 
Sodom ; r. ste, stop. fTito 'Amorah ; n. sheaf; v. foW. tra^K Ad- 
mah ; a. rec?; n. soz7. d h h:£ Tseboim, gazelles; v. #o forth, shine. 
WS§ Lesha e ; v. pierce, cleave. 

6. And the sons of Ham : Kush and Mizraim and Put and 
Kenaan. 7. And the sons of Kush : Seba and Havilah and 
Sabtah and Ramah and Sabteka ; and the sons of Ramah : 
Sheba and Dedan. 8. And Kush begat Nimrod : he began 
to be mighty in the land. 9. He was mighty in hunting, 
before the Lord : wherefore it is said, As Nimrod, mighty in 
hunting, before the Lord. 10. And the beginning of his king- 
dom was Babel and Erek and Akkad and Kalneh, in the 
land of Shinar. 11. Out of that land came he forth to 
Asshur, and builded Nineveh and Rehoboth-ir and Kelah, 
12. And Resen between Nineveh and Kelah; that is, the great 
city. 13. And Mizraim begat Ludim and Anamim and 
Lehabim and Naphtuhim, 14. And Pathrusim and Kasluhim, 
whence came Philistim and Kaphtorim. § 17. 

15. And Kenaan begat Zidon, his first-born, and Heth, 16. 
And the Jebusite and the Amorite and the Girgashite, 17. 
And the Hivite and the Arkite and the Sinite, 18. And the 
Arvadite and the Zemarite and the Hamathite ; and after- 
ward were spread abroad the families of the Kenaanite. 19. 
And the border of the Kenaanite was from Zidon, as thou 
goest to Gerar, unto Azzah ; as thou goest to Sodom and 
Amorah and Admah and Zeboim, unto Lesha. 20. These 
are the sons of Ham, after their families, after their tongues, 
in their lands, in their nations. § 18. 



GEN. X. 6-20. 223 

6. And the sons of Ham. Ham the youngest of the three brothers 
(Gen. ix. 24), is placed here because he agrees with Japheth in, 
becoming estranged from the true God, and because the last place as 
the more important is reserved for Shem. As the name of Japheth is 
preserved in the laireros of the Greeks, so Cham is supposed to appear 
in Chemi of the Koptic, x^/xia. of Plutarch, Chme of the Rosetta Stone, 
an old name of Egypt. This country is also called the land of Ham 
in Scripture (Ps. lxxviii. 51, cv. 23, 27, cvi. 22). But this term 
was of more comprehensive import, as we find some ancient inhabitants 
of a region in the south of Judah, said to have come from Ham ( 1 Chro. 
iv. 40). Thirty primitive nations sprang from Ham. Of these, only 
four were immediate descendants. 

(15) Kush has left traces of his name perhaps in the Caucasus, 
the Caspian, and the Cossaei of Khusistan. There is an allusion in 
Amos (ix. 7) to his migration to the land south of Egypt which bears 
his name. This name is preserved in Gheez, the name of the ancient 
language of the people, and some say even in Habesh. It is possible, 
that some of the Kushites went towards India. To Ethiopia, however, 
the name generally refers in Scripture. The Ethiopians were called 
by Homer (Odyss. I. 23), eo-^arot avSpwv, remotest of men. 

(16) Mizraim is the ordinary name for Egypt in the Hebrew 
scriptures. The singular form, Mazor, is found in later books ( 2 Kings 
xix. 24 ; Is. xix. 6, xxxv. 25). 

(17) Put has with one consent been placed beyond Egypt, in the 
north of the continent of Africa. He is mentioned along with Lubim 
as the helper of Nineveh (Nah. iii. 9), and with Kush, as forming 
part of the army of Neko (Jer. xlvi. 9). His descendants penetrated 
far westward. A river bearing the name of Phutes has been men- 
tioned in Mauretania, and an inland country is designated by the name 
of Futa. The name may be preserved also in Buto, the capital of 
lower Egypt, on the Sebennytic mouth of the Nile. 

(18) Ken a an settled in the country called after his name. There 
are some grounds for believing that this land was previously inhabited 
by Shemites, as the land was Shemitic. If so, the Kenaanites came 
in as intruders, and followed the language of their predecessors. But 
of this hereafter. 

7. Kush had five sons and two grandsons, who were reckoned among 
the founders of nations. (19) Seba is associated with Kush (Is. xliii. 
3, xlv. 14). Josephus (Ant. I. 6. 2, II. 10. 2) places him in Meroe, 
a country almost insulated by the Nile and its branches, the Astapus 



224 HAM. 

(Blue Nile) and Astaboras (Atbarah). (20) Havilah occurs as the 
name of a country in the antediluvian times. The present Havilah 
may refer to a tribe in Africa, called Avalitae, lying south of Bab-el- 
mandeb, which corresponds very well with the situation of Kush and 
Seba. This nation, however, may also have a representative in the 
XavXoTcuoi of Strabo (xvi. 728), situated on the Persian Gulf, where 
some other Kushites were to be found. The fragments of this nation 
may have separated by migration, and left its name in both localities. 
(21) Sabtah, Josephus finds in the Astaborans of Ethiopia, others in 
Sabota, a town in southwest Arabia. (22) Ramah is traced in Rhegma 
on the southeast of Arabia. (23) Sabteka is the third name, beginning 
with the same syllable. Such names are frequent from the Persian 
Gulf to the coast of Africa. Some find this place on the coast of 
Abyssinia, others in Samydake on the east side of the Persian Gulf. 
From Ramah are two tribes descended, — (24) Sheba, and (25) Dedan, 
lying in the south of Arabia or on the Persian Gulf. Daden, an island 
in the gulf, now Barhein, may represent the latter. 

8-12. In this episode the author turns aside from the table of nations 
to notice the origin of the first great empires that were established on 
the earth. And Kush begat Nimrod. The author had before enu- 
merated the sons of Kush, who were heads of nations. Here he singles 
out one of his sons or descendants, who became the first potentate of 
whom we have any record. He notices his qualities for rising to this 
position among men. He began to be a mighty one in the land. He 
was mighty in hunting, before the Lord. Hunting is a comprehensive 
term, indicating the taking of any species of animal, whether of the 
air, the sea, or the land. Nimrod's distinction in this respect was so 
great as to become proverbial. The expression, "before the Lord," 
intimates, not merely that the Lord was cognizant of his proceedings, 
for he knoweth all things, but that Nimrod himself made no secret of 
his designs, pursued them with a bold front and a high hand, and at 
the same time was aware of the name and will of Jehovah. This 
defiant air gives a new character to his hunting, which seems to have 
extended even to man, as the term is sometimes so applied (1 Sam. 
xxiv. 12 [11], Jer. xvi. 16). His name, which literally means ive 
shall rebel, is in keeping with the practice of an arbitrary and violent 
control over men's persons and property. 

10. The beginning or first seat and the extent of his kingdom among 
men are then described. It consists of four towns, — Babel and Erch 
and AkJcad and Kalneh, in the land of Shinar. The number four is 



GEN. X. 6-20. 225 

characteristic of Nimrod's kingdom. It is the mark of the four quarters 
of the earth, of universality in point of extent, and therefore of ambi- 
tion. The site of Babel (Babylon) has been discovered in certain 
ruins near Hillah, chiefly on the opposite or eastern bank of the 
Euphrates, where there is a square mound called Babil by the natives. 
Erek has been traced also on the east bank of the Euphrates, about 
one hundred miles southeast of Babil, or half way between the city 
and the confluence of the rivers. It is the Orchoe of the Greeks, and 
the ruins now bear the name of Urka, or Warka. This name appears 
as Huruk on the cuneiform inscriptions of the place. Akkad, in the 
Sept. Archad, Col. Taylor finds in Akkerkoof, north of Babel, and 
about nine miles west of the Tigris, where it approaches the Euphrates. 
Here there is a hill or mound of ruins called Tel Nimrud. Rawlinson 
finds the name Akkad frequent in the inscriptions, and mentions Kingi 
Akkad as part of the kingdom of Urukh, but without identifying the 
site. Kalneh, Kalno, Isa. x. 9 ; Kanneh, Ezek. xxvii. 23, is regarded 
by Jerome, and the Targum of Jonathan, as the same with Ktesiphon 
on the Tigris, in the district of Chalonitis. Its ruins are near Takti 
Kesra. Rawlinson identifies it with Mffer, but without assigning 
satisfactory grounds. The sites of these towns fix that of Shinar, 
which is evidently the lower part of Mesopotamia, or, more precisely, 
the country west of the Tigris, and south of Is, or Hit, on the Euphra- 
tes, and Samara on the Tigris. It is otherwise called Babylonia and 
Chaldasa. 

11, 12. Out of that land came he forth to Asshur. This may be 
otherwise rendered, " out of that land came forth Asshur." The prob- 
abilities in favor of the former translations are the following: 1st. The 
discourse relates to Nimrod. 2d. The words admit of it. 3d. The 
word Asshur has occurred hitherto only as the name of a country. 
4th. Asshur, the person, was considerably older than Mmrod, and had 
probably given name to Asshur before Mmrod's projects began. 5th. 
Asshur would have been as great a man as Nimrod, if he had founded 
Nineveh and its contiguous towns ; which does not appear from the 
text. Cth. The beginning of his kingdom implies the addition to it con- 
tained in these verses. 7th. A.nd the phrases in the land of Shinar, out 
of that land, and the need of some definite locality for the second four 
cities, are in favor of the former rendering. 

Asshur was a country intersected by the Tigris. It included the 
part of Mesopotamia north of Shinar, and the region between the 
Tigris and Mount Zagros. Its extension westward is undefined by 
29 



226 HAM. 

any natural boundary, and seems to have varied at different times. 
Nineveh was a well-known city of antiquity, situated opposite Mosul 
on the Tigris. The country in which it was placed is called by Strabo 
Aturia, a variation seemingly of Asshur. Its remains are now marked 
by the names Nebbi-yunus and Koyunjik. Rehoboth-ir, the city 
broadway or market, has not been identified. Kelah is said to be 
now marked by the ruin called Nimrud. This lies on the left bank 
of the Tigris, near its confluence with the greater Zab. Its name 
seems to be preserved in the Calachene of Strabo. It was about 
twenty miles south of Nineveh. It is possible, however, so far as 
we can conjecture from conflicting authorities, that Kelah may be 
Kileh Sherghat, about fifty miles south of Mosul, on the right bank 
of the Tigris. Besen is placed by the text between Nineveh and 
Kelah, and is therefore probably represented by Selamiyeh, a village 
about half way between Koyunjik and Nimrud. If Kelah, however, 
be Kileh Sherghat, Eesen will coincide with Nimrud. That is the 
great city. This refers most readily to Eesen, and will suit very well 
if it be Nimrud, which was evidently extensive. It may, however, 
refer to Nineveh. This completion of Nimrod's kingdom, we see, 
contains also four cities. The Babylonian and Assyrian monarchies 
were akin in origin, and allied in their history and in their fall. They 
were too near each other to be independent, and their mutual jealousies 
at length brought about the ruin of the northern capital. A Kushite, 
and therefore a Hamite, founded this first world-monarchy or tyranny. 
Another Hamite power arose simultaneously in Egypt. A branch of 
the Kushites seem to have gone eastward, and spread over India. But 
another branch spread through the South of Arabia, and, crossing into 
Africa, came into contact, sometimes into alliance, and sometimes into 
collision with the Egyptian monarchy. The eastern empire is noticed 
particularly, because it intruded into Shemitic ground, and aimed con- 
tinually at extending its sway over the nations descended from Shem. 
13, 14. Mizraim has seven sons, from whom are derived eight 
nations. (26) The Ludim are probably mentioned in Isa. lxvi. 19, in 
connection with Tarshish and Put ; in Jer. xlvi. 9, in connection with 
Kush and Put ; and in Ezek. xxvii. 10, xxx. 5, in connection with 
Put. In all these instances the name is in the singular, but in our 
text in the plural, expressly denoting the nation of which Lud was the 
progenitor. The Ludim were distinguished for the use of the bow. 
They were, doubtless, an African tribe, related to the Egyptians, and 
well known to the prophets, though their country cannot now be pointed 
out. Josephus intimates that they were destroyed, as well as other 



GEN. X. 6-20. 227 

tribes descended from Mizraim, in the Ethiopic war of the time of 
Moses ; but they still existed in the times of Ezekiel. Movers finds 
them in the Lewatah, a tribe of Berbers. Others place them in Mau- 
retania. Pliny mentions a river Laud in Tingitana. 

(27) The Anamim are not elsewhere mentioned. (28) The Lehabim 
are generally identified with the Lubim (2 Chr. xii. 3, xvi. 8 ; Dan. 
ii. 43 ; Nah. iii. 9), who are introduced in connection with the Kushim. 
They are probably the Libyans, who lay to the west of Egypt, and, 
extending from the Mediterranean indefinitely to the south, came into 
contact with the Kushites of Abyssinia. (29) The Naphtuhim Bocharfc 
places in Nephthys, near Pelusium on the Lake Sirbonis. Others 
find a trace of them in Napata, a town of Meroe. This agrees with 
the indications of Josephus and the Targum of Jonathan. 

(30) The Pathrusim have their place in Pathros, a name of upper 
Egypt or the Thebais. It is arranged by Isaiah (ii. 11) between 
Egypt and Kush. (31) The Kasluhim are supposed by some to be 
represented by the Colchians, whom Herodotus (ii. 104) traces to 
Egypt. It is possible the Colchians may have been a colony from 
them. But their original seat must have been somewhere on the 
coast of the Bed Sea. Out of whom came (32) Philistim. The 
Philistines dwelt on the coast of the Mediterranean, from the border 
of Egypt to Joppa. They had five principal cities, — Gaza, Ashdod, 
Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron. They gavs the name httftte Pelesheth 
to the whole of Kenaan, from which is derived the Greek name XlaA- 
cuo-rivY], Palaestina. They are stated by the text to be a colony or 
offshoot of the Kasluhim. (33) Kaphtorim. From Jer. xlvii. 4, it 
appears that Kaphtor was a coast-land. From Amos xi. 7, we learn 
that the Philistines came from this land. Hence we conclude that 
the Kaphtorim dwelt on the coast of the Red Sea, adjacent to the 
Kasluchim, and left their name, perhaps, in Koptos and AHyvrrroq. 
Cappadocia, Crete, and Cyprus only slightly resemble the name, and 
have no other recommendation. The Kasluhim may have been their 
southern neighbors, and thus the Philistines may have occupied a part 
of Kaphtor, before their settlement on the coast of the Great Sea, 
within the borders of Kenaan, where they would, of course, be another 
tribe {aS\6<\>vXoi). This account of these descendants of Mizraim 
agrees best with the hint of Josephus, that many of them bordered on 
the Ethiopians ; and perished, or perhaps were forced to migrate, in 
the Ethiopic or other wars (i. 6. 3). Thus it appears that the descend- 
ants of Mizraim were settled in Africa, with the exception of the 



228 HAM. 

Philistines, who migrated into the country to which they gave their 
name. 

15-19. From Kenaan are descended eleven nations. (34) Zidon 
is styled his first-born. The name is retained in the well-known town 
on the coast of Phoenicia, which is accordingly of the highest antiquity 
among the cities of that region. The Sidonians were reckoned coex- 
tensive with the Phoenicians, and are mentioned by Homer (II. xxiii. 
743 ; Od. iv. 618). (35) Beth. This tribe dwelt about Hebron and 
in the mountains around, and perhaps still further north in the districts 
extending towards the Euphrates (Gen. xxiii. 3 ; Num. xiii. 29 ; Jos. 
i. 4). Esau took wives from the Hittites (Gen. xxvi. 34, 35), and 
some part of the nation existed even after the captivity (Ezr. ix. 1). 

(36) The Jebusite has his chief seat in and around Jerusalem, which 
was called Jebus, from his chief; and the citadel of which was wrested 
from him only in the time of David (2 Sam. v. 7). (37) The Amo- 
rite was one of the most important and extensive tribes of Kenaan. 
Five kings of this nation dwelt in the mountains afterwards occupied 
by Judah (Gen. xiv. 7, 13 ; Nu. xiii. 29 ; Jos. x. 5), and two on the 
east of the Jordon, in Heshbon and Bashan, north of Moab (Nu. xxi. 
13 ; Deut. iv. 47). The eastern Amorites were conquered under Moses, 
the western under Joshua. A remnant of them were made bondsmen 
by Solomon (1 Ki. ix. 20). They survived the captivity (Ezr. ix. 1). 
(38) The Girgashite seems to have lain on the west of the Jordan, 
and the name may be preserved in the reading Tepyeo-rjvCiv, of Matt, 
viii. 28. The town of the Gergesenes is supposed to have been at 
the southeast of the lake of Gennesaret (Gen. xv. 21 ; Deut. vii. 1 ; 
Jos. xxiv. 11). 

(39) The Hivite was found at Shalem, Gibeon, and also at the foot 
of Hermon and Antilibanus ( Gen. xxxiv. 2 ; Jos. ix. 7, xi. 3 ; Judg. 
iii. 3). The former were also classed under the Amorites (Gen. xlviii. 
22 ; 2 Sam. xxi. 2). "With the exception of four cities of the Gib- 
conites, they were conquered by Joshua (ix. 17 ; xi. 3, 19). (40) 
The Arhite probably dwelt near a town called Arke or Caesarea 
Libani, lying some miles north of Tripolis, at the foot of Lebanon. 
Its ruins are still extant at Tel Arka. (41) The Sinite is supposed 
to have dwelt in Sinna, a town mentioned by Strabo, called Sine by 
Jerome, and Syn in the fifteenth century (Strab. xvi. 2, 18 ; Hieron. 
Quaest. in Gen., Breitenbach, Travels, p. 47), not far from Arke. 

(42) The Arvadite dwelt in Arvad, Aradus, now Ruad, a Phoeni- 
cian town on an island of the same name. (43) The Zemarite has 



GEN. X. 6-20. 229 

been traced in the town ^ifxvpa, the ruins of which were found by 
Shaw at the western foot of Lebanon, under the name of Sumra. (44) 
The Hamathite was the inhabitant of Hamath, called Hamath Kabbah 
(the great), by the Greeks Epiphaneia, and at present Hamah. It is 
situated on the Orontes, and held an important place in the history of 
Israel. The land of Hainath was of great extent, including the town 
of Riblah(2 Kings xxv. 21) and reaching even to Antioch. The 
entrance of Hamath train r'is, the northern part of the valley between 
Lebanon and Antilibanus, formed the utmost boundary of Palestine 
to the north (Num. xiii. 21 ; Jos. xiii. 5 ; 1 Kings viii. 65). Its king 
was in alliance with David (2 Sam. viii. 10). 

And afterwards were the families of the Kenaanites spread abroad. 
After the confusion of tongues were these nations formed ; and 
after the formation of these Kenaanic tribes occurred the dispersion 
spoken of in the text. We do not know what was the original seat 
of the Kenaanites ; or whether the dispersion here mentioned was 
violent or not. Its primary result, however, seems to have been their 
settlement in the country of which the boundaries are next described. 
It is not improbable that this land was allotted to a portion of the 
Shemites, and occupied by them when the Kenaanites entered and 
established themselves among them (Gen. xl. 15). The Kenaanites 
probably had the same grasping tendency which displayed itself in 
Nimrod, their kinsman ; and therefore seized upon the country with a 
high hand, and called it after their name. Their expulsion, on the 
conquest of the land by the Israelites, and their commercial activity, 
led to a still further dispersion ; as colonies were sent out by them to 
the distant shores of the Mediterranean, to Asia Minor, Greece, 
Africa, Spain, and even the British Isles. But it can scarcely be 
supposed that reference is here made to these subsequent events in 
their history. 

19. The border of Kenaan, as here described, extends along the 
coast from Zidon in the direction of (as thou goest unto) Gerar, which 
lay between Kadesh and Shur (Gen. xx. 1), and has its name pre- 
served in the Wady el-Jerur, which is nearly in a line connecting 
Ain el-Weibeh and Suez. It turns at Azzah (Gaza), and passes to 
the cities of the plain, of which the after-history is so memorable. 
Its terminating point is Lesha, which is generally supposed to be 
Callirrhoe, to the northeast of the Dead Sea, so called from the hot 
springs which form a stream flowing into the lake. It is possible, 
however, that Lesha is only another variation of Laish and Leshem, a 



230 SHEM. 

city belonging to the Sidonians, and situated near the sources of the 
Jordan. Thus we have the western, southern, and eastern border 
briefly given in this verse. It is manifest, however, that they did not 
confine themselves to these limits, but " afterward spread abroad " into 
the adjacent regions. The Hittite went to the northeast ; the Amorite 
crossed the Jordan, and occupied a great part of Peraea ; the Hivite, 
the Arkite, the Sinite, the Arvadite, the Zemarite, and the Hamathite 
stretched far north of the boundary. 

20. The list of the Hamites is here summed up in the usual form. 
It appears that Ham occupied Africa and a certain portion of Asia 
along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean, in the south of Arabia, 
about the lower valley of the Frat and Diljah, and perhaps along the 
south of Asia. In extent of territory, Japheth ultimately far exceeded, 
as he occupied most of Asia and almost all of Europe and the New 
World. Ham is next to him, as he inherited Africa and a portion of 
Asia. Some of his descendants have also been forcibly transplanted 
to the New Hemisphere. But in point of political intercourse with 
Shem, Japheth, in early times, sinks comparatively into the shade, 
and Ham assumes the prominent place. Babylon, Kush, Egypt, and 
Kenaan are the powers which come into contact with Shem, in that 
central line of human history which is traced in the Bible. Hence it 
is that in the table of nations special attention is directed to Kush, 
Nimrod, Mizraim, and to the tribes and borders of Kenaan. 



XXXIII. SHEM.— Gen. x. 21-32. 

21. *a$ 'Eber, yonder side ; v. pass, cross. 

22. nb^s) c Elam. bis suckle, fcb2 hide ; be mature. "i^Q-i!* Ar- 
pakshad. nb3 Spa boundary of Kesed, or (von-Bohlen) Arjapakshata, 
beside Aria. Eff» Aram, high ; v. be high. 

23. "ps'Uts; v. counsel; be firm, solid, bin Chul; v. rub, twist, 
writhe, be strong, await. *nra Gether, bridge ? ttia Mash ; r. feel, 
touch. 

24. nbd Shelach, missile, shoot. 

25. aba Peleg; n. brook, canal; v. divide. )Vp* Joctan, small. 
2G. Tntobx Almodad. T^b learn. "TTja measure. E]bl2 Sheleph ; 

v. draw out or off. ]TVra*wn Chatsarmaveth, court of death. T\^ Je- 
rach, moon, month. 



GEN. X. 21-32. 231 

27. eni-itt Hadoram, majesty, beauty; v. swell, honor. Vna Uzal ; 
v. go out or away. inbp'n Diclah, palm. 

28. tai"5 'Obal, bare, bald. £>aa"Q8 Abimael, father of Mael {cir- 
cumcision'). 

29. "naiK Ophir ; v. 6rm£, veil. SS«h Jobab ; v. cry, ca#. 

30. kibb Meslia, nxd = Kid roar, eras/*. 'nSS Sephar, counting, 
writing. 

21. And to Shem was born issue, even to him, the father of 
all the sons of Heber, the elder brother of Japheth. 22. The 
sons of Shem: Elam and Asshur and Arpakshad and Lud 
and Aram. 23. And the sons of Aram : Uz and Hul and 
Gether and Mash. 24. And Arpakshad begat Shelah ; and 
Shelah begat Heber. 25. And to Heber were born two sons: 
the name of the one was Peleg, for in his days was the land 
divided ; and his brother's name was Joctan. 26. And Joctan 
begat Almodad and Sheleph and Hazarmaveth and Jerah, 27. 
And Hadoram and Uzal and Diclah, 28. And Obal and Abimael 
and Sheba, 29. And Ophir and Havilah and Jobab : all these 
were the sons of Joctan. 30. And their dwelling was from 
Mesha as thou goest unto Sephar, a mount of the east. 31. 
These are the sons of Shem after their families, after their 
tongues, in their lands, after their nations. 32. These are 
the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in 
their nations : and by these were the nations divided in the 
land after the flood. 1 14. 



From Japheth, who penetrated into the remotest regions, the writer 
proceeds to Ham, who came into close contact with Shem. From Ham 
he passes to Shem, in whom the line of history is to be continued. 

21. Shem is here distinguished by two characteristics — the former 
referring to a subsequent, the latter to an antecedent event. He is 
the father of all the sons of Heber. It is evident from this that the sons 
of Heber cast lustre on the family of Shem, and therefore on the whole 
human race. It is unnecessary to anticipate the narrative, except so 
far as to note that the sons of Heber include most of the Arabians, a 



232 SHEM. 

portion of those who mingled with the race and inhabited the land of 
Aram, and, most probably, the original element of the population in 
the land of Kenaan. This characteristic of Shem shows that the table 
in which it is found was composed after the Hebrews had become 
conspicuous among the descendants of Shem. 

Shem is next distinguished as the elder brother of Japheth ; that is, 
older than Ham. This interpretation of the words is most agreeable 
to the Hebrew idiom, and is the only one which affords an important 
sense. That Shem was the second son appears from the facts that 
Ham was the youngest (Gen. ix. 24), that Shem was born in the five 
hundred and third year of Noah (Gen. xi. 10), and, therefore, Japheth 
must have been the one born when Noah was in his five hundredth 
year (Gen. v. 32). The reason for inserting this statement is to 
prevent the order in which the brothers are introduced in the pedigree 
from being taken as that of their age, instead of that of the historical 
relationship subsisting among the nations descended from them. 

22. Twenty -six of the primitive nations are descended from Shem, 
of which five are immediate. (45) Elaai was settled in a part of the 
modern Persia, to which he gave name. This name seems to be pre- 
served in Elymais, a province of that country bordering on the Dijlah, 
and now included in Khusistan. It was early governed by its own 
kings (Gen. xiv. 1), and continued to occupy a distinct place among 
the nations in the time of the later prophets (Isa. xxii. 6; Jer. xlix. 34; 
Eze. xxxii. 24). Its capital was Shushan or Susa (Dan. viii. 2), now 
Sinister. 

(46) Asshttr seems to have originally occupied a district of Meso- 
potamia, which was bounded on the east by the Tigris (Gen. ii. 14). 
The inviting plains and slopes on the east of the Tigris would soon 
occasion a migration of part of the nation across that river. It is 
possible there may have been an ancient Asshur occupying the same 
region even before the flood (Gen. ii. 14). 

(47) Arpakshad is traced in ' AppairaxLTis, Arrhapachitis, a region 
in the north of Assyria. V. Bohlen and Benfey identify it with Aria- 
pakskata, denoting a country beside Aria. Gesenius renders it border 
or stronghold of the Kasdim ; but the components of the word are 
uncertain. The nations descended from Arpakshad are noted at the 
close on account of their late origin, as well as their import for the 
subsequent narrative. 

(48) Lud is usually identified with the Lydians, AvSol, who by 
migration at length reached and gave their name to a part of the west 
coast of Asia Minor. 



LESSON VI. 

comfort, 16. That I may remember — God speaks of it as 
reminding Him. The rainbow is thus full of promise on the 
face of the storm. 

QUESTIONS.— 8, 9. What does God now declare to Noah 
and his sons? What is here meant by "establishing a cove- 
nant" t Was the household feature of the covenant here 
retained? 10. Were all animals included in the covenant? 
How is this to be understood and explained? Repeat Roui. 
viii. 22. Are all animals embraced in the fall ? 11. What 
is here promised as to " all fievh" ? What is promised as to 
"the earth" ? See 2 Pe-t. 3: 6, 7. 12, 13. What token or 
seal of the eovecapt did Gojd appoint? What was the u^e 
of such a seal? Was it a new thing? 14. What is here 
promised as to the rainbow? 15. What does God here further 
promise ? 16. How is this idea still further expressed ? What 
does this seem to imply about the rainbow ? 17. What further 
declaration did God make to Noah? How are we to under- 
stand this verse ? 



GOLDEN TEXT.—" By faith Noah, being warned of God 
of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark 
to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the 
world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by 
faith." Heb. 11 : 7. 

THEMES.— The ark is a type of Christ. Here was a 
■saved remnant and a saved family, saved by grace. But 
they had to work, and to enter in. " Strive to enter in at the 
strait gate." How merciful is God's covenant with the 
[earth! We need fear no more any deluge. We must expect 
[this earth to be burnt up, and a new earth fitted for a better 
abode. Have you entered into the ark of salvation by ac- 
cepting Jesnis Christ? 

CATECHISM.— Q. S6. What is faith in Jesus Christ ? A. 
Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace, whereby we receive 
land rest upon Him alone for salvation, as He is offered to 
us in the gospel. 

HEADINGS.— M. Bom. 8: 19-25. Tu. Jude, vss. 17-25. 
IW. 2 Pet. 3 : 9-14. Th. Heb. 12 : 22-24. E. Bev. 10 : 1-7. 
Sa. Heb. 8 : 6-13. S. Bev. 4 : 1-11. 

; Behold the ark of God ! Behold the open door ! 
Hasten to reach that dear abode, and rove, my soul, no more." 



WESTMINSTER SCHOLAR PAPER. 



LESSON 6 —Genesis ix. 8-17. 

8. And God spake unto Noah., and to his sons with him, 
saying, 9. And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, 
and with your seed after you; 10. And with every living 
creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of 
every beast of the earth with you; from all' that go out of 
the ark, to every beast of the earth. 11. And 1 will estab- 
lish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off 
any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any 
more be a flood to destroy the earth. 12. And God said, 
This is the token of the covenant which I make between 
me and you and every living creature that is with you, for 
perpetual generations : 13. I do set my how in the cloud, 
and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and 
the earth. 14. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a 
cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud : 

15. And I will remember my covenant, which is between me 
and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the 
waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. 

16. And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon 
it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between 
(iud and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the 
earth. 17. And God said unto Noah, This is the token of 
the covenant, which I have established between me and all 
flesh that is upon the earth. 

NOTES.— 8. Noah and to his sons — It was a household 
ovcnant, as explained in the next verse. Establish — Ordain 
fix. 10. Every living creature — It extended to all his 
interests and to the animal creation, who had been involved 
in the curse. 11. No more flood to destroy all flesh and the 
earth. But the earth will be destroyed by fire. 2 Pet. 3 : 6, 7. 
12. The token — Or sign, by which the blessing was pledged 
and signified. A sacrament is a covenant sign which repre- 
sents, seals and applies the covenant benefits to believers. 
Perpetual generations — For all people in all time. 13. I 
do set — Do place, appoint. My bow — He calls the rain- 
bow His own. It was to be the sign of a covenant of God 
for the earth. It was a pledge of the earth's preservation 
from another deluge. It was probably a new thing to them. 
14. The cloud would alarm, but the bow in the cloud would 



GEN. X. 21-32. 233 

(49) Aram gave name to the upper parts of Mesopotamia and the 
parts of Syria north of Palestine. Hence we read of Aram Naharaim 
(of the two rivers), Aram Dammesek (of Damascus), Aram Maakah 
on the southwest border of Damascus, about the sources of the Jordan. 
Aram Beth Eechob in the same neighborhood, and Aram Zoba to the 
north of Damascus. The name is perhaps varied in the "Apifxot of 
Homer (II. ii. 783) and Strabo (xiii. 4. G). From Aram are descended 
four later nations. 

23. (50) Uz ('A win?, LXX.) is the chief of a people having their seat 
in the north of Arabia Deserta, between Palestine and the Euphrates. 
From this Uz it is possible that the sons of Nahor and of Seir (Gen. 
xxii. 21 ; xxxvi. 28) obtained their name. Job dwelt in this land. 
(51) Hul is supposed to have his settlement about the sources of the 
Jordan in Huleh. Others trace this nation in the Hylatae (Plin. v. 19) 
near Emesa. (52) Getlier is of uncertain position, probably in Arabia. 
(53) Mash may have left a trace of his name in Mons Masius, Karajah 
Dagh, south of Diarbekir, and perhaps also in the Mysians and Moe- 
sians, who may have wandered westward from under this mountain. 

24. Arpakshad begat (54) Shelah. We know nothing of the nation 
of which he was the founder. He begat (55) Heber. He is the pro- 
genitor of the Hebrews, the race to which Abraham belonged. He is 
marked out very prominently for reasons partly unknown to us at this 
distance of time, but partly no doubt because he was the ancestor of 
the chosen race who immediately preceded the confusion of tongues, 
and to whom belonged that generic Hebrew tongue, which afterwards 
branched into several dialects, of which the Hebrew, now strictly so 
called, was one. It is probable that most of the diversified modes of 
speech retained the substance of the primeval speech of mankind. 
And it is not improbable, for various reasons, that this Hebrew tongue, 
taken in its largest sense, deviated less from the original standard than 
any other. The Shemites, and especially the Hebrews, departed less 
from the knowledge of the true God than the other families of man, and, 
therefore, may be presumed to have suffered less from the concussion 
given to the living speech of the race. The knowledge previously 
accumulated of the true God, and of his will and way, would have 
been lost, if the terms and other modes of expressing divine things 
had been entirely obliterated. It is consonant with reason, then, to 
suppose that some one language was so little shaken from its primary 
structure as to preserve this knowledge. "We know as a fact, that, while 
other nations retained some faint traces of the primeval history, the 

30 



234 SHEM. 

Hebrews have handed down certain and tangible information concern- 
ing former things in a consecutive order from the very first. This is a 
proof positive that they had the distinct outline and material substance 
of the primeval tongue in which these things were originally expressed. 
In keeping with this line of reasoning, while distinct from it, is; the 
fact that the names of persons and things are given and explained in 
the Hebrew tongue, and most of them in that branch of, it in which 
the Old Testament is composed. We do not enter further into the 
peculiar nature of the Hebrew family of languages, or the relationship 
in which they are found to stand with the other forms of human speech 
than to intimate that such investigations tend to confirm the conclusions 
here enunciated. 

25. This nation was very extensive, and accordingly branched out 
into several, of which the immediate ones are Peleg and Joctan. (56) 
Peleg is remarkable on account of the origin assigned to his name. In 
his days was the land divided. Here two questions occur. What is 
the meaning of the earth being divided, and what is the time denoted 
by his days ? The verb divide (."^3) occurs only three times elsewhere 
in the Hebrew scriptures (1 Chron. i. 19 ; Job xxxviii. 25 ; Ps. lv. 
10). The connection in which this rare word is used in the Psalm, 
" divide their tongues," seems to determine its reference in the present 
passage to the confusion of tongues and consequent dispersion of man- 
kind recorded in the following chapter. This affords a probable answer 
to our first question. The land was in his days divided among the 
representative heads of the various nations. But to what point of 
time are we directed by the phrase in his days ? Was the land divided 
at his birth, or some subsequent period of his life ? The latter is pos- 
sible, as Jacob and Gideon received new names, and Joshua an altered 
name, in after-life. The phrase in his days seems to look the same 
way. And the short interval from the deluge to his birth appears 
scarcely to suffice for such an increase of the human family as to allow 
of a separation into nations. Yet, on the other hand, it is hard to find 
any event in after-life which connected this individual more than any 
other with the dispersion of man. It is customary to give the name 
at birth. The phrase in his days may, without any straining, refer to 
this period. And if we suppose, at a time when there were only a 
few families on the earth, an average increase of ten children in each in 
four generations, we shall have a thousand, or twelve hundred full- 
grown persons, and, therefore, may have five hundred families at the 
birth of Peleg. We cannot suppose more than fifty-five nations distin- 



GEN. X. 21-32. 235 

guished from one another at the dispersion, as Heber is the fifty -fifth 
name, and all the others are descended from him. And if three families 
were sufficient to propagate the race after the flood, nine or ten were 
enough to constitute a primeval tribe or nation. We see some reason, 
therefore, to take the birth of Peleg as the occasion on which he 
received his name, and no stringent reason for fixing upon any later 
date. At all events the question seems to be of no chronological 
importance, as in any case only four generations preceded Peleg, and 
these might have been of comparatively longer or shorter duration 
without materially affecting the number of mankind at the time of his 
birth. Peleg is also remarkable as the head of that nation out of 
which, at an after period, the peculiar people of God sprang. Of the 
Palgites, as a whole, we hear little or nothing further in history. 

(57) Joctan, if little or insignificant as an individual or a nation, 
is the progenitor of a large group of tribes, finding their plaae among 
the wandering races included afterwards under the name Arab. 
Cachtan, as the Arabs designate him in their traditions, may have 
given name to Cachtan, a town and province mentioned by Niebuhr. 

26-29. The thirteen tribes of the Joctanites or primitive Arabs are 
here enumerated. (58) Almodad is usually referred to Yemen. The 
first syllable may be the Arabic article. Mudad is the name of one 
celebrated in Arab story as the stepfather of Ishmael and chief of the 
Jurhum tribe of Joctanites. The 'AAAov/xeucorai of Ptolemy belonged 
to the interior of Arabia Felix. (59) Sheleph is traced in the %a\(nrr]voi 
of Ptolemy (6. 7), belonging to the interior. (60) Hazarmaveth gives 
name to a district on the Indian Ocean, abounding in spices, now called 
Hadramaut. This tribe is the Chatramitae of Greek writers. (61) 
Jerah occupied a district where are the coast and mountain of the 
moon, near Hadramaut. (62) Hadoram is preserved in the tribe called 
'ASpafuroLL Atramitae, placed by Pliny (6. 28) between the Homerites 
and the Sachalites on the south coast of Arabia. (63) TJzal perhaps 
gave the ancient name of Azal to Sana, the capital of Yemen, a place 
still celebrated for the manufacture of beautiful stuffs. (64) Diclah 
settled possibly in the palm-bearing region of the Minaei in Hejaz. 
(65) Obal is otherwise unknown. (66) Abimael is equally obscure. 
Bochart supposes there is a trace of the name in MaAi, a place in Ara- 
bia Aromatifera. (67) Sheba is the progenitor of the Sabaei in Arabia 
Felix, celebrated for spices, gold, and precious stones, and noted for 
the prosperity arising from traffic in these commodities. A queen of 
Sheba visited Solomon. The dominant family among the Sabeeans 



236 SHEM. 

was that of Himjar, from whom the Himjarites (Homeritse) of a later 
period descended. 

(C8) Ophir gave name to a country celebrated for gold, precious 
stones, and almug wood, which seems to have lain on the south side 
of Arabia, where these products may be found. What kind of tree the 
almug is has not been clearly ascertained. Some suppose it to be the 
sandal wood which grows in Persia and India ; others, a species of 
pine. If this wood was not native, it may have been imported from 
more distant countries to Ophir, which was evidently a great emporium. 
Others, however, have supposed Ophir to be in India, or Eastern Africa. 
The chief argument for a more distant locality arises from the supposed 
three years' voyage to it from Ezion-geber, and the products obtained 
in the country so reached. But the three years' voyage (1 Kings x. 
22; 2 Chron. ix. 21) seems to be in reality to Tarshish, a very differ- 
ent region. 

(69) Havilah here is the founder of a Joctanite tribe of Arabs, and 
therefore his territory must be sought somewhere in the extensive 
country which was occupied by these wandering tribes. A trace of 
the name is probably preserved in Khawlan, a district lying in the 
northwest of Yemen, between Sana and Mecca, though the tribe may 
have originally settled or extended further north. (70) Jobab has been 
compared with the 'Iu)/?ap?rcu of Ptolemy (6. 7). Bochart finds the 
name in the Arabic yobab, a desert. 

29. The situation of Mesha is uncertain. But it is obviously the 
western boundary of the settlement, and may have been in the neigh- 
borhood of Mecca and Medina. Sephar is perhaps the Arabic Zaph- 
ari, called by the natives Isfor, a town on the south coast near Mirbat. 
It seems, however, to be, in the present passage, the " mount of the 
east " itself, a thuriferous range of hills, adjacent, it may be, to the sea- 
port so-called. Gesenius and others fix upon Mesene, an island at the 
head of the Persian Gulf, as the Mesha of the text. But this island 
may have had no existence at the time of the Joctanite settlement. 
These boundaries include the greater part of the west and south coast 
of the peninsula, and are therefore sufficient to embrace the provinces 
of Hejaz (in part), Yemen, and Hadramaut, and afford space for the 
settlements of the thirteen sons of Joctan. The limits thus marked 
out determine that all these settlers, Ophir among the rest, were at first 
to be found in Arabia, how far soever they may have wandered from 
it afterwards. 

31, 32. The first of these verses contains the usual closing formula 



GEN. X. 21-32. 237 

for the pedigree of the Shemite tribes ; and the second, the correspond- 
ing form for the whole table of nations. 

From a review of these lands it is evident that Shem occupied a 
much smaller extent of territory than either of his brothers. The 
mountains beyond the Tigris, the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, the Le- 
vant, the Archipelago, and the Black Sea, bound the countries that 
were in part peopled by Shem. Arabia, Syria, and Assyria con- 
tained the great bulk of the Shemites, intermingled with some of the 
Hamites. The Kushites, Kenaanites, and Philistines trench upon their 
ground. The rest of the Hamites peopled Africa, and such countries 
as were supplied from it. The Japhethites spread over all the rest of 
the world. 

In this table there are seventy names, exclusive of Nimrod, of 
heads of families, tribes, or nations descended from the three sons of 
Noah, — fourteen from Japheth, thirty from Ham, and twenty-six from 
Shem. Among the heads of tribes descended from Japheth are seven 
grandsons. Among those from Ham are twenty-three grandsons and 
three great-grandsons. Among those of Shem are five grandsons, one 
great-grandson, two of the fourth generation, and thirteen of the fifth. 
"Whence it appears that the subdivisions are traced further in Ham 
and much further in Shem than in Japheth, and that they are pur- 
sued only in those lines which are of importance for the coming 
events in the history of Shem. 

It is to be observed, also, that, though the different races are distin- 
guished by the diversity of tongues, yet the different languages are 
much less numerous than the tribes. The eleven tribes of Kenaan- 
ites, and the thirteen tribes of Joctanites, making allowance for some 
tribal peculiarities, most probably spoke at first only two dialects of 
one family of languages, which we have designated the Hebrew, itself 
a branch of, if not identical with, what is commonly called the Shem- 
itic. Hence some Hamites spoke the language of Shem. A similar 
community of language may have occurred in some other instances of 
diversity of descent. 



238 THE CONTUSION OF TONGUES. 



XXXIV. THE CONTUSION OF TONGUES. — Gen. xi. 1-9. 

1. SJG3 pluck out, breah up, journey. ffTj&B eastward, or on the east 
side, as in Gen. ii. 14, xiii. 11 ; Isaiah ix. 11 (12). 

6. d^TVn their beginning, for tfenrt the regular form of this infinitive 
with a suffix. yar* as if from dr == test. 

7. pftM usually said to be for r&S5 from ^^3 ; but evidently designed 
by the punctuator to be the thrid sing. fern. perf. of bns to be con- 
founded, having for its subject Sisto, " and there let their lip be con- 
founded." The two verbs have the same root. 

9. btt Babel, confusion, derived from bs the common root of ^3 
and ^53, by doubling the first radical. 



XI. 1. And the whole land was of one lip, and one stock 
of words. 2. And it came to pass, as they journeyed eastward, 
that they found a plain in the land of Shinar ; and they dwelt 
there. 3. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make 
brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for 
stone, and asphalt had they for mortar. 4. And they said, Go 
to, let us build us a city, and a /tower whose top may be in 
the sky, and let us make us a name ; lest we be scattered 
abroad upon the face of the whole land. 5. And the Lord 
came down to see the city and the tower, which the sons of 
man had builded. 6. And the Lord said, Behold, the people 
is one, and they have all one lip, and this they have begun to 
do ; and now nothing will be restrained from them, which 
they have imagined to do. 7. Go to, let us go down, and there 
confound their lip, that they may not understand one an- 
other's lip. 8. And the Lord scattered them abroad thence 
upon the face of all the land ; and they left off to build the 
city. 9. Therefore was the name of it called Babel, because 
the Lord had there confounded the lip of all the land ; and 
thence had the Lord scattered them abroad upon the face of 
all the land. f 15. 



GEN. XL 1-9. 239 

Having completed the table of nations, the sacred writer, according 
to his wont, goes back to record an event of great moment, both for the 
explanation of this table and for the future history of the human race. 
The point to which he reverts is the birth of Peleg. The present 
singular passage explains the nature of that unprecedented change by 
which mankind passed from one family with a mutually intelligible 
speech, into many nations of diverse tongues and lands. 

1. The previous state of human language is here briefly described. 
The whole land evidently means the whole then known world with all 
its human inhabitants. The universality of application is clearly and 
constantly maintained throughout the whole passage. "Behold, the 
people is one." And the close is on this point in keeping with the 
commencement. " Therefore was the name of it called Babel, because 
the Lord had there confounded the lip of all the land." 

Of one lip, and one stock of words. In the table of nations the 
term " tongue " was used to signify what is here expressed by two 
terms. This is not undesigned. The two terms are not synonymous 
or parallel, as they form the parts of one compound predicate. " One 
stock of words," then, we conceive, naturally indicates the matter, the 
substance, or material of language. This was one and the same to 
the whole race. The term " lip," which is properly one of the organs 
of articulation, is, on the other hand, used to denote the form, that is, 
the manner, of speaking ; the mode of using and connecting the matter 
of speech ; the system of laws by which the inflections and derivations 
of a language are conducted. This also was one throughout the 
human family. Thus the sacred writer has expressed the unity of 
language among mankind, not by a single term as before, but, with a 
view to his present purpose, by a combination of terms expressing the 
two elements which go to constitute every organic reality. 

2-4. The occasion of the lingual change about to be described is 
here narrated. As they journeyed eastward. The word " they " refers 
to the whole land of the previous verse, which is put by a common 
figure for the whole race of man. " Eastward " is proved to be the 
meaning of the phrase ffijSE by Gen. xiii. 11, where Lot is said to 
journey (d*!!?^) from Bethel to the plain of the Jordan, which is to the 
east. The human race, consisting it might be of five hundred families, 
journeys eastward, with a few points of deflection to the south, along 
the Euphrates valley, and cbmes to a plain of surpassing fertility in 
the land of Shinar (Herod, i. 178, 193). A determination to make a 
permanent abode in this productive spot is immediately formed. 



240 THE CONFUISION OF TONGUES. 

3, 4. A building is to be erected of brick and asphalt. The Baby- 
lonian soil is still celebrated for these architectural materials. There 
is here a fine clay, mingled with sand, forming the very best material 
for brick, while stones are not to be found at a convenient distance. 
Asphalt is found boiling up from the soil in the neighborhood of Bab- 
ylon and of the Dead Sea, which is hence called the lacus Asphaltites. 
The asphalt springs of Is or Hit on the Euphrates are celebrated by 
many writers. Burn them thoroughly. Sun-dried bricks are very 
much used in the East for building purposes. These, however, were 
to be burned, and thereby rendered more durable. Brick for stone. 
This indicates a writer belonging to a country and an age in which 
stone buildings were familiar, and therefore not to Babylonia. Brick- 
making was well-known to Moses in Egypt ; but this country also 
abounds in quarries and splendid erections of stone, and the Sinaitic 
peninsula is a mass of granitic hills. The Shemites mostly inhabited 
countries abounding in stone. Asphalt for mortar. Asphalt is a min- 
eral . pitch. The word rendered mortar means at first clay, and then 
any kind of cement. 

4. The purpose of their hearts is now more fully expressed. Let 
us build us a city, and a tower whose top may be in the skies. A city 
is a fortified enclosure or keep for defence against the violence of the 
brute creation. A tower whose top may be in the skies for escape 
from the possibility of a periodical deluge. This is the language of 
pride in man, who wishes to know nothing above himself, and to rise 
beyond the reach of an over-ruling Providence. And let us make us a 
name. A name indicates distinction and preeminence. To make us 
a name, then, is not so much the cry of the multitude as of the few, 
with Nimrod at their head, who alone could expect that which is not 
common, but distinctive. It is here artfully inserted, however, in the 
popular exclamation, as the people are prone to imagine the glory 
even of the despot to be reflected on themselves. This gives the char- 
acter of a lurking desire for empire and self-aggrandizement to the 
design of the leaders, — a new form of the same selfish spirit which 
animated the antediluvian men of name (Gen. vi. 4). But despotism 
for the few or the one, implies slavery and all its unnumbered ills for 
the many. Lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole 
land. The varied instincts of their common nature here speak forth. 
The social bond, the tie of kinsmanship, the wish for personal safety, 
the desire to be independent, perhaps even of God, the thirst for abso- 
lute power, all plead for union ; but it is union for selfish ends. 



GEN. XL 1-9. 241 

5-7. These verses describe the nature of that change by which 
this form of human selfishness is to be checked. 5. The Lord came 
down. The interposing providence of God is here set forth in a sub- 
lime simplicity, suited to the early mind of man. Still there is some- 
thing here characteristic of the times after the deluge. The presence 
of the Lord seems not to have been withdrawn from the earth before 
that event. He walked in the garden when Adam and Eve were 
there. He placed the ministers and symbols of his presence before it 
when they were expelled. He expostulated with Cain before and 
after his awful crime. He said, " My Spirit shall not always strive 
with man." He saio the wickedness of man ; and the land was corrupt 
before him. He communicated with Noah in various ways, and finally 
established his covenant with him. In all this he seems to have been 
present with man on earth. He lingered in the garden as long as his 
forbearance could be expected to influence man for good. He at length 
appointed the limit of a hundred and twenty years. And after watch- 
ing over Noah during the deluge, he seems to have withdrawn his 
visible and gracious presence from the earth. Hence the propriety of 
the phrase, " the Lord came down." He still deals in mercy with a 
remnant of the human race, and has visited the earth and manifested 
his presence in a wondrous way. But he has not yet taken up his 
abode among men as he did in the garden, and as he intimates that he 
will sometime do on the renovated earth. 

6. In like simplicity is depicted the self-willed, god-defying spirit 
of combination and ambition which had now budded in the imagination 
of man. The people is one, — one race, with one purpose. And they 
have all one lip. They understand one another's mind. No misun- 
derstanding has arisen from diversity of language. This is their 
beginning. The beginning of sin, like that of strife, is as when one 
letteth out water. The Lord sees in this commencement the seed of 
growing evil. All sin is dim and small in its first rise ; but it swells 
by insensible degrees to the most glaring and gigantic proportions. 
And now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined 
to do. Now that they have made this notable beginning of concentra- 
tion, ambition, and renown, there is nothing in this way which they 
will not imagine or attempt. 

7. Here is announced the means by which the defiant spirit of con- 
centration is to be defeated. From this and the previous verse we 
learn that the lip, and not the stock of words, is the part of language 
which is to be affected, and hence perceive the propriety of distin- 

31 



242 THE CONFUSION OF TONGUES. 

guishing these two in the introductory statement. To confound, is to 
introduce several kinds, where before there was only one ; and so in 
the present case to introduce several varieties of form, whereas lan- 
guage was before of one form. Hence it appears that the one primi- 
tive tongue was made manifold by diversifying the law of structure, 
without interfering with the material of which it was composed. The 
bases or roots of words are furnished by instinctive and evanescent 
analogies between sounds and things, on which the etymological law 
then plays its part, and so vocables come into existence. Thus from 
the root fer, we get fer, ferre, f evens, fert, ferebat, feret, ferat, ferret ; 
</>epe, cjiipciv, (pipoiv, <f>£pu, t<£epe, </>ep?7, ^P 01 ) e ^C. > •"^ ^? > ^P > ^^^ 
rns^, etc., according to the formative law of each language. It is 
evident that some roots may become obsolete and so die out, while 
others, according to the exigencies of communication and the abilities 
of the speaker, may be called into existence in great abundance. But 
whatever new words come into the stock, are made to comply with the 
formative law which regulates the language of the speaker. This law 
has been fixed as the habitude of his mind, from which he only deviates 
on learning and imitating some of the formative processes of another 
tongue. In the absence of any other language, it is not conceivable 
that he should on any account alter this law. To do so would be to 
rebel against habit without reason, and to put himself out of relation 
with the other speakers of the only known tongue. 

The sacred writer does not care to distinguish the ordinary from 
the extraordinary in the procedure of Divine Providence, inasmuch as 
he ascribes all events to the one creating, superintending, and admin- 
istering power of God. Yet there is something beyond nature here. 
We can understand and observe the introduction of new words into 
the vocabulary of man as often as the necessity of designating a new 
object or process calls the naming faculty into exercise. But the new 
word, whether a root or not, if engrafted into the language, invariably 
obeys the formative law of the speech into which it is admitted. A 
nation adds new words to its vocabulary, but does not of itself, without 
external influence, alter the principle on which they are formed. Here, 
then, the divine interference was necessary, if the uniform was ever 
to become multiform. And accordingly this is the very point in which 
the historian marks the interposition of the Almighty. 

Philologists have distinguished three or four great types or families 
of languages. The first of these was the Shemitic or Hebrew family. 
It is probable that most of the Shemites spoke dialects of this well- 



GEN. XL 1-9. 243 

defined type of human speech. Aram (the Syrians), Arpakshad, (the 
Hebrews and Arabs), and Asshur (the Assyrians), certainly did so. 
Elam (Elymais), succumbed first to the Kushite race (KiWioi, Ko<r- 
omoi) and afterwards to the Persian, and so lost its language and its 
individuality among the nations. Lud (the Lydians) was also over- 
run by other nationalities. But this type of language was extended 
beyond the Shemites to the Kenaanites and perhaps some other 
Hamites. It includes the language of the Old Testament. 

The second family of languages has been variously designated 
Japhetic, Indo- Germanic, Indo-European and Arian. It is spoken by 
the great bulk of the descendants of Japheth, and embraces a series 
of cognate modes of communication, extending from India to the various 
European colonies of America. It includes Greek, the tongue of the 
New Testament. 

A third class, including the Kushite (Babylonian), Egyptian, and 
other African languages, has been termed Hamitic. Some of its stocks 
have affinities both with the Shemitic and Japhetic families. 

It is probable that the congeries of unclassed languages (Allophy- 
lian, Sporadic, Turanian), including even the Chinese tongues, have 
relations more or less intimate with one or other of these three tolerably 
definite families. But the science of comparative philology is only 
approaching the solution of its final problem, the historical or natural 
relationship of all the languages of the world. It is evident, however, 
that the principle of classification is not so much the amount of roots 
in common, as the absence or presence of a given form. The diversity 
in the matter may be brought about by assignable natural causes ; but 
the diversity in the form can only arise from a preternatural impulse. 
Forms may wear off; but they do not pass from one constituent law 
to another without foreign influence. The speech of a strong and 
numerous race may gradually overbear and annihilate that of a weak 
one ; and in doing so may adopt many of its words, but by no means 
its form. So long as a national speech retains any of its forms, they 
continue to be part of that special type by which it is characterized. 

Hence we perceive that the interposition of Providence in con- 
founding the lip of mankind, is the historical solution of the enigma of 
philology ; the existence of diversity of language at the same time with 
the natural persistency of form and the historical unity of the human 
race. The data of philology, indicating that the form is the side of 
language needing to be touched in order to produce diversity, coincide 
also with the facts here narrated. The preternatural diversification 



244 THE CONTUSION OF TONGUES. 

of the form, moreover, marks the order amid variety which prevailed 
in this great revolution of mental habitude. It is not necessary to 
suppose that seventy languages were produced from one at the very 
crisis of this remarkable change, but only the few generic forms that 
sufficed to effect the divine purpose, and by their interaction to give 
origin to all subsequent varieties of language or dialect. Nor are we 
to imagine that the variant principles of formation went into practical 
development all at once, but only that they started a process which, 
in combination with other operative causes, issued in all the diversities 
of speech which are now exhibited in the human race. 

That they may not understand one another's lip. This is the imme- 
diate result of diversifying the formative law of human speech, even 
though the material elements were to remain much the same as before. 
Further results will soon appear. 

8, 9. The effect of the divine interposition is here noted. And the 
Lord scattered them abroad. Not understanding one another's mode 
of speech, they feel themselves practically separated from one another. 
Unity of counsel and of action becomes impossible. Misunderstanding 
naturally follows, and begets mistrust. Diversity of interest grows up, 
and separation ensues. Those who have a common speech retreat 
from the centre of union to a sequestered spot, where they may form 
a separate community among themselves. The want of pasture for 
their flocks and provision for themselves leads to a progressive migra- 
tion. Thus the divine purpose, that they should be fruitful and mul- 
tiply and replenish the land (Gen. ix. 1) is fulfilled. The dispersion 
of mankind at the same time put an end to the ambitious projects of 
the few. They left off to build the city. It is probable that the people 
began to see through the plausible veil which the leaders had cast 
over their selfish ends. The city would henceforth be abandoned to 
the immediate party of Nimrod. This would interrupt for a time the 
building of the city. Its dwellings would probably be even too numer- 
ous for its remaining inhabitants. The city received the name of Babel 
(confusion), from the remarkable event which had interrupted its prog- 
ress for a time. 

This passage, then, explains the table of nations, in which they are 
said to be distinguished, not merely by birth and land, but " every one 
after his tongue." It is therefore attached to the table as a needful 
appendix, and thus completes the history of the nations so far as it is 
carried on by the Bible. At this point the line of history leaves the 
universal, and by a rapid contraction narrows itself into the individual, 



GEN. XI. 1-9. 245 

in the person of him who is to be ultimately the parent of a chosen 
seed, in which the knowledge of God and of his truth is to be preserved, 
amidst the degeneracy of the nations into the ignorance and error 
which are the natural offspring of sin. 

Here, accordingly, ends the appendix to the second Bible, or the 
second volume of the revelation of God to man. As the first may 
have been due to Adam, the second may be ascribed in point of matter 
to Noah, with Shem as his continuator. The two joined together 
belong not to a peculiar people, but to the universal race. If they had 
ever appeared in a written form before Moses, they might have de- 
scended to the Gentiles as well as to the Israelites. But the want of 
interest in holy things would account for their disappearance among 
the former. The speakers of the primitive language, however, would 
alone retain the knowledge of such a book if extant. Some of its con- 
tents might be preserved in the memory, and handed down to the 
posterity of the founders of the primeval nations. Accordingly we 
find more or less distinct traces of the true God, the creation, the fall 
and the deluge, in the traditions of all nations that have an ancient 
history. 

But even if this two-volumed Bible were not possessed by the na- 
tions in a written form, its presence here, at the head of the writings 
of divine truth, marks the catholic design of the Old Testament, 
and intimates the comprehension of the whole family of man within 
the merciful purposes of the Almighty. In the issues of Providence 
the nations appear now to be abandoned to their own devices. Such 
a judicial forsaking of a race, who had a second time heard the procla- 
mation of his mercy, and a second time forsaken the God of their 
fathers, was naturally to be expected. But it is never to be forgotten 
that God twice revealed his mercy to the whole human race before they 
were left to their own ways. And even when they were given over 
to their own wilful unrighteousness and ungodliness, it was only to 
institute and develop the mystery by which they might be again fully 
and effectually brought back to reconciliation with God. 

The new developments of sin during this period are chiefly three, — 
drunkenness, dishonoring of a parent, and the ambitious attempt to be 
independent of God's power, and to thwart his purpose of peopling the 
land. These forms of human selfishness still linger about the primary 
commands of the two tables. Insubordination to the supreme authority 
of God is accompanied with disrespect to parental authority. Drunk- 
enness itself is an abuse of the free grant of the fruit of the trees origi- 



246 THE CONTUSION OF TONGUES. 

nally made to man. These manifestations of sin do not advance to 
the grosser or more subtle depths of iniquity afterwards explicitly 
forbidden in the ten commandments. They indicate a people still 
comparatively unsophisticated in their habits. 

The additional motives brought to bear on the race of man during 
the interval from Noah to Abraham, are the preaching of Noah, the 
perdition of the unbelieving antediluvians, the preservation of Noah 
and his family, the distinction of clean and unclean animals, the per- 
mission to partake of animal food, the special prohibition of the shed- 
ding of man's blood, the institution thereupon of civil government, and 
the covenant with Noah and his seed that there should not be another 
deluge. 

The preaching of Noah consisted in pressing the invitations and 
warnings of divine mercy on a wicked race. But it bore with new 
power on the succeeding generations, when it was verified by the 
drowning of the impenitent race and the saving of the godly household. 
This was an awful demonstration at the same time of the divine ven- 
geance on those who persisted in sin, and of the divine mercy to the 
humble and the penitent. The distinction of the clean and the unclean 
was a special warning against that conformity with the world by which 
the sons of God had died out of the human race. The permission to 
partake of animal food was in harmony with the physical constitution 
of man, and seems to have been delayed till this epoch for moral as 
well as physical reasons. In the garden, and afterwards in Eden, the 
vegetable products of the soil were adequate to the healthy sustenance 
of man. But in the universal diffusion of the human race, animal food 
becomes necessary. In some regions where man has settled, this alone 
is available for a great portion of the year, if not for the whole. And 
a salutary dread of death, as the express penalty of disobedience, was 
a needful lesson in the infancy of the human race. But the over- 
whelming destruction of the doomed race was sufficient to impress this 
lesson indelibly on the minds of the survivors. Hence the permission 
of animal food might now be safely given, especially when accompa- 
nied with the express prohibition of manslaying, under the penalty of 
death by the hands of the executioner. This prohibition was directly 
intended to counteract the bad example of Cain and Lamek, and to 
deter those who slew animals from slaying men ; and provision was 
made for the enforcement of its penalty by the institution of civil 
government. The covenant with Noah was a recognition of the race 
being reconciled to God in its new head, and therefore fitted to be 



GEN. XI. 1-9. 241 

treated as a party at peace with God, and to enter on terms of com- 
munion with him. Its promise of security from destruction by a flood 
was a pledge of all greater and after blessings which naturally flow 
from amity with God. 

Thus we perceive that the revelation of God to the antediluvian 
world was confirmed in many respects, and enlarged in others, by that 
made to the postdiluvians. The stupendous events of the deluge were 
a marvellous confirmation of the justice and mercy of God revealed to 
Adam. The preaching of Noah was a new mode of urging the truths 
of God on the minds of men, now somewhat exercised in reflective 
thought. The distinction of clean and unclean enforced the distinction 
that really exists between the godly and the ungodly. The prohibition 
of shedding human blood is the growth of a specific law out of the 
great principle of moral rectitude in the conscience, apace with the 
development of evil in the conduct of men. The covenant with Noah 
is the evolution into articulate utterance of that federal relation which 
was virtually formed with believing and repentant Adam. Adam 
himself was long silent in the depth of his self-abasement for the 
disobedience he had exhibited. In Noah the spirit of adoption had 
attained to liberty of speech, and accordingly, God, on the momentous 
occasion of his coming out of the ark and presenting his propitiatory 
and eucharistic offering, enters into a covenant of peace with him, 
assuring him of certain blessings. 

There is something specially interesting in this covenant with Noah, 
as it embraces the whole human race, and is in force to this day. It is 
as truly a covenant of grace as that with Abraham. It is virtually 
the same covenant, only in an earlier and less developed form. Being 
made with Noah, who had found grace in the eyes of the Lord, and 
added to the former expression of the divine favor to man, it explicitly 
mentions a benefit which is merely the first and most palpable of the 
series of benefits, temporal and eternal, flowing from the grace of God, 
all of which are in due time made over to the heirs of salvation. "We 
cannot tell how many of the Gentiles explicitly or implicitly consented to 
this general covenant and partook of its blessings. But it is only just to 
the God of Noah to be thankful that there was and is an offer of mercy 
to the whole family of man, all who accept of which are partakers of 
his grace, and that all subsequent covenants only help to the ultimate 
and universal acceptance of that fundamental covenant which, though 
violated by Adam and all his ordinary descendants, was yet in the 
fulness of time to be implemented by him who became the seed of the 
woman and the second Adam. 



SECTION IX. — LINE TO ABRAM. 

XXXY. THE LINE OF ABRAM. — Gen. xi. 10-26. 

18. -isn Hen, friend; v. feed, delight in, enjoy. 

20. Wito Serug, vine-shoot. 

22. Tins Nachor, snorting. 

24. trft Terach, delay f Ch. 

26. tn*2& Abv&m, high father. "pii Haran, mountaineer. 

10. These are the generations of Shem : Shem was the son 
of a hundred years, and begat Arpakshad two years after the 
flood. 11. And Shem lived after he begat Arpakshad five 
hundred years, and begat sons and daughters. § 19. 

12. And Arpakshad lived five and thirty years, and begat 
Shelah. 13. And Arpakshad lived after he begat Shelah three 
and four hundred years, and begat sons and daughters. § 20. 

14. And Shelah lived thirty years, and begat Heber. 15. 
And Shelah lived after he begat Heber three and four hundred 
years, and begat sons and daughters. § 21. 

16. And Heber lived four and thirty years, and begat Peleg. 
17. And Heber lived after he begat Peleg thirty and four 
hundred years, and begat sons and daughters. § 22. 

18. And Peleg lived thirty years and begat Reu. 19. And 
Peleg lived after he begat Reu nine and two hundred years, 
and begat sons and daughters. § 23. 

20. And Reu lived two and thirty years, and begat Serug. 
21. And Reu lived after he begat Serug seven and two hundred 
years, and begat sons and daughters. § 24. 

22. And Serug lived thirty years, and begat Nahor. 23. 



GEN. XI. 10-26. 



249 



And Serug lived after lie begat Nalior two hundred years, and 
begat sons and daughters. § 25. 

24. And Nalior lived nine and twenty years, and begat 
Terah. 25. And Nahor lived after he begat Terah nineteen 
and a hundred years, and begat sons and daughters. § 26. 

26. And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, 
and Haran. 

The usual phrase, These are the generations, marks the beginning of 
the fifth document. Accordingly, we now enter upon a new phase of 
human development. The nations have gradually departed from the 
living God. They have not, however, stopped at this negative stage 
of ungodliness. They have fallen into polytheism and idolatry. And 
the knowledge of the one true God, the Maker, Possessor, and Up- 
holder of heaven and earth, is on the verge of being entirely lost. 
Nevertheless the promises, first to the race of Adam, that the seed of 
the woman should bruise the serpent's head, and next to the family 
of Noah, that the Lord should be the God of Shem, were still in force. 
It is obvious, from the latter promise, that the seed of the woman is to 
be expected in the line of Shem. 

The present passage contains the pedigree of Abram from Shem. 
From this it appears that the sacred writer here reverts to the second 
year after the flood, — a point of time long before the close of the pre- 
ceding narrative. Shem was the son of a hundred years, or in his 
hundredth year, two years after the flood, and therefore in the six 
hundred and third year of Noah, and consequently three years after 
Japheth. Abram was the twentieth, inclusive, from Adam, the tenth 
from Shem, and the seventh from Ileber. A second Kenan is inserted 
after Arpakshad in the Septuagint, and in the Gospel according to 
Luke. But this name does not occur even in the Septuagint in 1 
Chron. i. 24, where the genealogy of Abram is given. It is not found 
in the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Targums, or the ancient versions. 
It does not appear in Josephus or Philo. Neither is it found in the 
Codex Bezae in the Gospel of Luke. It must therefore be regarded 
as an interpolation. 

The following table is a continuation of that given at the fifth chap- 
ter, and will serve for the comparison of the different forms in which 
the numbers are presented : 
32 



250 



THE LI]S~E OF ABEAM. 





HEBREW. 


SAM. 


PEXT. 


SEPTUAGINT. 


JOSEPHUS. 


DATE. 


Son's 
Birth. 


Own 

Death. 


Son's 
Birth. 


Own 
Death. 


Son's 
Birth. 


Own 

Death. 


Son's 
Birth. 


Own 
Death. 


Of 
Birth. 


Of 
Death. 


11. Shcm . . . 


(97) 2 


600 


(97)2 


600 


(97)2 


600 


(97)12 




1559 


2159 


12. Arpakshad 


35 


438 


135 


438 


135 


535 


135 




1058 


2096 


{Kaivav) 










130 


460 










13. Shelali . . 


30 


433 


130 


433 


130 


460 


130 




1693 


2126 


14. Heber . . . 


34 


464 


134 


404 


134 


404 


134 




1723 


2187 


IS.Peleg . . . 


30 


239 


130 


239 


130 


339 


130 




1757 


1996 


16.Rcu 


32 


239 


.132 


239 


132 


339 


130 




1787 


2026 


17. Serug . . . 


30 


230 


130 


230 


130 


330 


132 




1819 


2049 


18. Xahor. . . 


29 


148 


79 


148 


175 


304 


129 




1849 


1997 


19. Terah . . . 
(ilaran) 


J 70 

(60 


205 


70 
60 


145 


70 

60 


205 


70 


205 


1S78 


2083 


i 292 
( 130 


20. Abram cd. 


70 




70 




70 






2008 


2078 


Enters Ken. 
Sam .... 




75 




75 




75 




75 






422 




1072 




1302 




422 






D. of Flood 
Date of call 


1656 




1307 




2262 




2256 


1 




2078 




2379 




3564 




2678 


1 





From this table it appears that in the total years of life the Hebrew, 
Samaritan,- and Septuagint agree in Shem ; the Hebrew and Septua- 
gint in Terah ; the Samaritan and Septuagint in Heber ; and the 
Hebrew and Samaritan in all the rest. In regard, however, to the 
years of paternity, the Hebrew stands alone, against the Samaritan and 
Septuagint agreeing, except in Terah, where they all agree. The 
difference is not in units or tens, but in the addition to the Hebrew 
numbers of a hundred years, except in the case of Nahor, where the 
addition is fifty years, or a hundred and fifty according to the Codex 
Vaticanus of the Septuagint. Here, again, it is remarkable that Jose- 
phus while agreeing with the Samaritan and Septuagint in most of 
the separate numbers before paternity, agrees with the Hebrew in the 
sum of years from the flood to the 70th year of Terah (292 years, 
Jos. I. 6. 5). In Reu and Serug the numbers are transposed, seem- 
ingly by a mistake arising from the inverted order in which he gives 
the numbers. In JSTahor he, or his transcriber, seems to have added 
a hundred years according to the uniform law, and neglected the nine. 
To make up for this omission, the inexact round number 10 has been 
apparently added to the number of years after the flood, when Arpak- 
shad was born. We have already noticed that some MSS. of Josephus 



GEK XI. 10-23. 



251 



gave 1656 as the sum-total of years from the creation to the flood, in 
which case the sums of Josephus and the Hebrew exactly agree. We 
find him also stating (viii. 3. 1) that the world was created 3102 years 
before Solomon began to build the temple, and that the deluge took 
place 1440 before the same point of time. Hence we obtain 1662 
years between the creation and the deluge ; and this, if we only deduct 
from it the six years added to Lamek, agrees with the Hebrew. In 
the same passage he states that the entrance of Abram into Kenaan 
was 1020 years before the building of the temple. Hence we infer 
that 420 years elapsed from the flood to the call of Abram, which, if 
we count from the birth of Arpaksbad, allow sixty years to elapse 
between the births of Haran and Abram, and date the call of Abram 
at 70, will exactly tally with the Hebrew. These sums cannot in any 
probable way be reconciled with the details in his own text, or in the 
Septuagint, or Samaritan. Again, Josephus calculates (x. 8. 5) that 
the temple was burnt 3513 years from the creation, and 1957 from 
the flood. Hence the interval from the creation to the deluge would 
be 1556 years, differing from the Hebrew by 100 years, and recon- 
cilable with it, if we suppose the 500th year of Noah to be the term- 
inating date. He also concludes that the burning of the temple took 
place 1062 years after the exodus, thus making the interval from 
the flood to the exodus 895 years, while the Hebrew makes it 852. 
If we reckon the 100 years from the 500th year of Noah to the 
flood, the 292 which Josephus gives from the flood to the birth of 
Abraham, the 75 years to the call of Abraham, and the 430 from that 
to the exodus, we have 897 years, which will be reduced to Josephus's 
number by omitting the 2 years from the flood to the birth of Arpak- 
shad ; and to the Hebrew number by omitting the 100 years before 
the flood, adding the 60 between Haran and Abram, which Josephus 
here neglects, and dating the call of Abram at 70 years. But by no 
process that we are aware of can these calculated numbers of Josephus 
be reconciled with the details of his own text, or the Samaritan, or 
Septuagint. It seems perfectly clear that the Hebrew numbers lie at 
the basis of these calculations of our author. 

The age of paternity in the Samaritan from Peleg down is beyond 
the middle age of life, which is contrary to all experience. The editor 
of the Septuagint seems to have observed this anomaly, and added 
100 years to three of these lives, and 156 to that of Nahor, against the 
joint testimony of the Hebrew and Samaritan. If the year of paternity 
in the Vatican be the correct reading, a much greater number should 



252 THE LINE OE ABRAM. 

have been here added. The Samaritan deducts 60 years from the 
age of Terah, against the joint testimony of the Hebrew, Samaritan, 
and Josephus, seemingly because the editor conceived that Abram 
was born in his seventieth year. 

From the Targum of Onkelos and the Peshito it is evident that the 

Hebrew text was the same as now up to the Christian era. Before 

i that time there was no conceivable reason for shortening the chronol- 

: ogy, while national vanity and emulation might easily prompt men to 

lengthen it. It is acknowledged that the text of the Septuagmt is 

inferior to that of the Hebrew. 

The age of puberty in the Hebrew affords more scope for the in- 
crease of population than that in the other texts. For if a man begin 
to have a family at thirty, it is likely to be larger than if he began a 
hundred years later and only lived the same number of years alto- 
gether. ISTow the Hebrew and Samaritan agree generally, against the 
Septuagint, in the total years of life ; and in two instances, Heber and 
Terah, the Samaritan has even a less number than the Hebrew. It 
is to be remembered, also, that the number of generations is the same 
in every case. Hence in all human probability the Hebrew age of 
paternity will give the greater number of inhabitants to the world in 
the age of Abram. If we take the moderate average of five pairs for 
each family, we shall have for the estimated population 4 X ™ pairs, 
or 15,G23,000 souls. This number is amply sufficient for all the king- 
doms that were in existence in the time of Abram. If we defer the 
time of becoming a father for a whole century, we shall certainly 
diminish, rather than increase, the chance of his having so large a 
family, and thereby the probability of such a population on the earth 
in the tenth generation from Noah. 

In these circumstances we are disposed to abide by the Hebrew 
text, that has descended to us in an original form, at least until we see 
some more cogent reasons for abandoning any of its numbers than 
chronologers have yet been able to produce. And we content our- 
selves, meanwhile, with the fact that the same system of numbers 
manifestly lay at the basis of all our present texts, though it may be 
difficult in some cases to determine to the satisfaction of all what was 
the original figure. The determination of the chronology of ancient 
history is neither a question of vital importance, nor, to us now, a part 
of the primary or direct design of the Hebrew records. 



SECTION X. — ABRAHAM. 



XXXVI. FATHER OF ABEAM. — Gen. xi. 27-32. 

27. Wib Lot, veil ; v. cover, 

28. IIS Ur, light, flame. fi^bS) Kasdim, Cardi, Kurds, XaXSatot. 
T&3 gain ? Arab. Ur Kasdim has been identified with Hur, now 
called Mugheir- (the bitumened), a heap of ruins lying south of the 
Euphrates, nearly opposite its junction with the Shat el-Hie. Others 
place it at Edessa, now Orfa, a short way north of Carrhae. 

29. "»nb Sarai; strife t; rnb strive, rule, rs^a Milkah, counsel, queen ; 
v. counsel, reign, nap* 1 . Jiskah, one who spies, looks out. 

31. ynri Charan, burnt place. Xappdv, Kdppat, a town on the Bilichus 
(Bililk), a tributary of the Frat, still called Harran. This has been 
identified by some with Harae, on the other side of the Frat, not far 
from Tadmor or Palmyra. 

27. And these are the generations of Terah : Terali begat 
Abram, Nahor, and Haran ; and Haran begat Lot. 28. And 
Haran died before Terali his father, in the land of his birth, 
in Ur of the Kasdim. 29. And Abram and Nahor took them 
wives ; the name of Abram' s wife was Sarai ; and the name 
of Nahor's wife Milkah, the daughter of Haran, the father of 
Milkah and the father of Iskah. 80. And Sarai was barren ; 
she had no child. 81. And Terah took Abram his son, and 
Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter-in- 
law, wife of Abram his son ; and they went forth with them 
from Ur of the Kasdim, to go into the land of Kenaan ; and 
they went into Haran, and dwelt there. 82. And the days of 
Terah were five and two hundred years ; and Terah died in 
Haran. 3 1f HIT 16 



254 FATHER OF ABRAM. 

27-32. This passage forms the commencement of the sixth docu- 
ment, as is indicated by the customary phrase, These are the gener- 
ations. The sense also clearly accords with this distinction; and it 
accounts for the repetition of the statement, " Terah begat Abram, 
Nahor, and Haran." Yet the scribe who finally arranged the text 
makes no account of this division ; as he inserts neither a S nor even 
a G at its commencement, while he places the threefold S, marking 
the end of a Sabbath lesson, at its close. We learn from this that the 
Jewish rabbis did not regard the opening phrase as a decided mark 
of a new beginning, or any indication of a new author. Nevertheless, 
this passage and the preceding one form the meet prelude to the history 
of Abram, — the one tracing his genealogy from Shem and Heber, and 
the other detailing his relations with the family out of which he was 
called. 

God has not forsaken the fallen race. On the contrary, he has 
once and again held out to them a general invitation to return, with a 
promise of pardon and acceptance. Many of the descendants of Noah 
have already forsaken him, and he foresees that all, if left to themselves, 
will sink into ungodliness. Notwithstanding all this, he calmly and 
resolutely proceeds with his purpose of mercy. In the accomplishment 
of this eternal purpose he moves with all the solemn grandeur of long- 
suffering patience. One day is with him as a thousand years, and a 
thousand years as one day. Out of Adam's three sons he selects one 
to be the progenitor of the seed of the woman ; out of Noah's three 
sons he again selects one ; and now out of Terah's three is one to be 
selected. Among the children of this one he will choose a second one, 
and among his a third one before he reaches the holy family. Doubt- 
less this gradual mode of proceeding is in keeping with the hereditary 
training of the holy nation, and the due adjustment of all the divine 
measures for at length bringing the fulness of the Gentiles into the 
covenant of everlasting peace. 

The history here given of the postdiluvians has a striking resem- 
blance in structure to that of the antediluvians. The preservation of 
Noah from the waters of the flood, is the counterpart of the creation 
of Adam after the land had risen out of the roaring deep. The intox- 
ication of Noah by the fruit of a tree corresponds with the fall of Adam 
by eating the fruit of a forbidden tree. The worldly policy of Nimrod 
and his builders is parallel with the city-building and many inventions 
of the Cainites. The pedigree of Abram the tenth from Shem, stands 
over against the pedigree of Noah the tenth from Adam; and the 



GEN. XI. 27-32. 255 

paragraph now before us bears some resemblance to that which pre- 
cedes the personal history of Noah. All this tends to strengthen the 
impression made by some other phenomena, already noticed, that the 
book of Genesis is the work of one author, and not a mere file of 
documents by different writers. 

The present paragraph is of special interest for the coming history. 
Its opening word and intimates its close connection with the preceding 
document ; and accordingly we observe that the one is merely intro- 
ductory to the other. The various characters brought forward are all 
of moment. Terah is the patriarch and leader of the migration for 
part of the way. Abram is the subject of the following narrative. 
Nahor is the grandfather of Rebekah. Haran is the father of Lot the 
companion of Abram, of Milcah the wife of Nahor and grandmother 
of Rebekah, and of Iskah. Iskah alone seems to have no connection 
with the subsequent narrative. Josephus says Sarai and Milkah 
were the daughters of Haran, taking no notice of Iskah. He seems, 
therefore, to identify Sarai and Iskah. Jerome, after his Jewish 
teachers, does the same. Abram says of Sarai, " She is the daughter 
of my father, but not the daughter of my mother " (Gen. xx. 12). In 
Hebrew phrase the granddaughter is termed a daughter ; and therefore 
this statement might be satisfied by her being the daughter of Haran. 
Lot is called the brother's son and the brother of Abram ( Gen. xiv. 
12, 1G). If Sarai be Haran's daughter, Lot is Abram's brother-in-law. 
This identification would also explain the introduction of Iskah into 
the present passage. Still it must be admitted, on the other hand, that 
persons are sometimes incidentally introduced in a history of facts, 
without any express connection with the course of the narrative, as 
Naamah in the history of the Cainites. The studied silence of the 
sacred writer in regard to the parentage of Sarai, in the present con- 
nection, tells rather in favor of her being the actual daughter of Terah 
by another wife, and so strictly the half-sister of Abram. For the 
Mosaic law afterwards expressly prohibited marriage with " the daugh- 
ter of a father " (Lev. xviii. 9). And, lastly, the text does not state of 
Iskah, " This is Sarai," which would accord with the manner of the 
sacred writer, and is actually done in the Targum of Pseudo- Jonathan. 

28. And Haran died in the presence of his father Terah. There is 
reason to believe that Haran was the eldest son of Terah. Though 
mentioned in the third place, like Japheth the eldest son of Noah, yet, 
like Japheth, also, his descendants are recounted first. He is the 
father of Lot, Milkah, and Iskah. His brother Nahor marries his 



256 FATHER OF ABEAM. 

daughter Milkah. If Iskah be the same as Sarai, Haran her father 
must have been some years older than Abram, as Abram was only ten 
years older than Sarai ; and hence her father, if younger than Abram, 
must have been only eight or nine when she was born, which is im- 
possible. Hence, those who take Iskah to be Sarai, must regard 
Abram as younger than Haran. 

In the land of his birth. The migration of Terah, therefore, did not 
take place till after the death of Haran. At all events, his three 
grandchildren, Lot, Milkah, and Iskah, were born before he commenced 
his journey. Still further, Milkah was married to Nahor for some 
time before that event. Hence, allowing thirty years for a generation, 
we have a period of sixty years and upwards from the birth of Haran 
to the marriage of his daughter. But if we take seventy years for a 
generation, which is far below the average of the Samaritan or the 
Septuagint, we have one hundred and forty years, which will carry us 
beyond the death of Terah, whether we reckon his age at one hundred 
and forty-five with the Samaritan, or at two hundred and five with the 
other texts. This gives another presumption in favor of the Hebrew 
average for a generation. 

In Ur of the Kasdim. The Kasdim, Cardi, Kurds, or Chaldees are 
not to be found in the table of nations. They have been generally 
supposed to be Shemites. This is favored by the residence of Abram 
among them, by the name Kesed, being a family name among his 
kindred (Gen. xxii. 22), and by the language commonly called 
Chaldee, which is a species of Aramaic. But among the settlers of 
the country, the descendants of Ham probably prevailed in early times. 
Nimrod, the founder of the Babylonian Empire, was a Kushite. The 
ancient Babylonish language, E-awlinson (Chaldaea) finds to be a 
peculiar dialect, having affinities with the Shemitic, Arian, Turanian, 
and Hamitic tongues. The Chaldees were spread over a great extent 
of surface ; but their most celebrated seat was Chaldaea proper, or the 
land of Shinar. The inhabitants of this country seem to have been of 
mixed descent, being bound together by political rather than family 
ties. Nimrod, their centre of union, was a despot rather than a patri- 
arch. The tongue of the Kaldees, whether pure or mixed, and 
whether Shemitic or not, is possibly distinct from the Aramaic, in 
which they addressed Nebuchadnezzar in the time of Daniel (i. 4, ii. 
4). The Kaldin at length lost their nationality, and merged into the 
caste or class of learned men or astrologers, into which a man might 
be admitted, not merely by being a Kaldai by birth, but by acquiring 



GEN. XI. 27-32. 



257 



the language and learning of the Kasdim (Daniel i. 4, v. 11). The 
seats of Chaldee learning were Borsippa (Birs Nimrud), Ur, Babylon, 
and Sepharvaim (Sippara, Mosaib). Ur or Hur has been found by- 
antiquarian research (see Kawlinson's Ancient Monarchies) in the 
heap of ruins called Mugheir, " the bitumened." This site lies now 
on the right side of the Frat ; but the territory to which it belongs is 
mainly on the left. And Abrani coming from it would naturally cross 
into Mesopotamia on his way to Haran. Orfa, the other supposed 
site of Ur, seems to be too near Haran. It is not above twenty or 
twenty-five miles distant, which would not be more than one day's 
journey. 

29, 30. But Sarai was barren. From this statement it is evident 
that Abram had been married for some time before the migration took 
place. It is also probable that Milkah had begun to have a family ; 
a circumstance which would render the barrenness of Sarai the more 
remarkable. 

31, 32. And Terah took Abram. Terah takes the lead in this emi- 
gration, as the patriarch of the family. In the Samaritan Pentateuch 
Milkah is mentioned among the emigrants ; and it is not improbable 
that Nahor and his family accompanied Terah, as we find them after- 
wards at Haran, or the city of Nahor (Gen. xxiv. 10). And they went 
forth with them. Terah and Abram went forth with Lot and the other 
companions of their journey. To go into the land of Kenaan. It was 
the design of Terah himself to settle in the land of Kenaan. The 
boundaries of this land are given in the table of nations (Gen. x. 19). 
The Kenaanites were therefore in possession of it when the table of 
nations was drawn up. It is certain, however, that there were other 
inhabitants, some of them Shemites probably, anterior to Kenaan, and 
subjected by his invading race. The prime motive to this change of 
abode was the call to Abram recorded in the next chapter. Moved 
by the call of God, Abram " obeyed ; and he went out not knowing 
whither he went " (Heb. xi. 8). But Terah was influenced by other 
motives to put himself at the head of this movement. The death of 
Haran, his eldest son, loosened his attachment to the land of his birth. 
Besides, Abram and Sarai were no doubt peculiarly dear to him, and 
he did not wish to lose their society. The inhabitants also of Ur had 
fallen into polytheism, or, if we may so speak, allotheism, the worship 
of other gods. Terah had himself been betrayed into compliance with 
this form of impiety. It is probable that the revelation Abram had 
received from heaven was the means of removing this cloud from his 
33 



258 FATHER OF ABRAM. 

mind, and restoring in him the knowledge and worship of the true 
God. Hence his desire to keep up his connection with Abram, who 
was called of God. Prayerful intercourse with the true and living 
God, also, while it was fast waning in the land of the Kasdim, seems 
to have been still maintained in its ancient purity in some parts of the 
land of Kenaan and the adjacent countries. In the land of Uz, a 
Shemite, perhaps even at a later period, lived Job ; and in the neigh- 
boring districts of Arabia were his several friends, all of whom ac- 
knowledged the true God. And in the land of Kenaan was Melkizedec, 
the king of Salem, and the priest of the Most High God. A priest 
implies a considerable body of true worshippers scattered over the 
country. Accordingly, the name of the true God was known and 
revered, at least in outward form, wherever Abram went, throughout 
the land. The report of this comparatively favorable state of things 
in the land of Kenaan would be an additional incentive to the newly 
enlightened family of Terah to accompany Abram in obedience to the 
divine call. , 

Terah set out on his journey, no doubt, as soon after the call of 
Abram as the preparatory arrangements could be made. Now the 
promise to Abram was four hundred and thirty years before the exodus 
of the children of Israel out of Egypt (Ex. xii. 40). Of this long 
period his seed was to be a stranger in a land that was not theirs for 
four hundred years (Gen. xv. 13). Hence it follows that Isaac, his 
seed, was born thirty years after the call of Abram. Now Abram was 
one hundred years old when Isaac was born, and consequently the call 
was given when he was seventy years of age, — about five years before 
he entered the land of Kenaan (Gen. xii. 4). This whole calculation 
exactly agrees with the incidental statement of Paul to the Galatians 
(Gal. iii. 17) that the law was four hundred and thirty years after the 
covenant of promise. Terah was accordingly two hundred years old 
when he undertook the long journey to the land of Kenaan ; for he 
died at two hundred and five, when Abram was seventy-five. Though 
proceeding by easy stages, the aged patriarch seems to have been 
exhausted by the length and the difficulty of the way. They came to 
Haran and dwelt there. Broken down with fatigue, he halts for a 
season at Haran to recruit his wasted powers. Filial piety, no doubt, 
kept Abram watching over the last days of his venerable parents, who 
probably still cling to the fond hope of reaching the land of his adop- 
tion. Hence they all abode in Haran for the remainder of the five 
years from the date of Abram's call to leave his native land. And 



GEN. XI. 27-32. 259 

Terah died in Haran. This intimates that he would have proceeded 
with the others to the land of Kenaan if his life had been prolonged, 
and likewise that they did not leave Haran until his death. 

We have already seen that Abram was seventy-five years of age at 
the death of Terah. It follows that he was born when Terah was 
one hundred and thirty years old, and consequently sixty years after 
Haran. This is the reason why we have placed one hundred and 
thirty (seventy and sixty), in the genealogical table opposite Terah, 
because the line of descent is not traced through Haran, who was born 
when he was seventy, but through Abram, who by plain inference was 
born when he was one hundred and thirty years old. It will be ob- 
served, also, that we have set down seventy opposite Abram as the date 
of his call, from which is counted the definite period of four hundred 
and thirty years to the exodus. And as all our texts agree in the 
numbers here involved, it is obvious that the same adjustment of years 
has in this case to be made, whatever system of chronology is adopted. 
Hence Abram is placed first in the list of Terah's sons, simply on 
account of his personal preeminence as the father of the faithful and 
the ancestor of the promised seed ; he and his brother Nahor are both 
much younger than Haran, are married only after his death, and one 
of them to his grown-up daughter Milkah ; and he and his nephew 
Lot are meet companions in age as well as in spirit. Hence also 
Abram lingers in Haran, waiting to take his father with him to the 
land of promise, if he should revive so far as to be fit for the journey. 
But it was not the lot of Terah to enter the land, where he would only 
have been a stranger. He is removed to the better country, and by 
his departure contributes no doubt to deepen the faith of his son Abram, 
of his grandson Lot, and of his daughter-in-law Sarai. This explana- 
tion of the order of events is confirmed by the statement of Stephen : 
" The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham when he was 
in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran. Then came he out of 
the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Charran ; and from thence, 
when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye 
now dwell " (Acts vii. 2-4). 



260 THE CALL OF ABRAM. 



XXXVIL THE CALL OF ABRAM. — Gen. xii. 1-9. 

6. tod Shekem, the upper part of the bach Here it is the name of 
a person, the owner of this place, where afterwards is built the town 
called at first Shekem, then Flavia Neapolis, and now Nablous. * ( ibx 
the oak ; r. be lasting, strong, rnia In Onk. plain ; Moreh, archer, 
early rain, teacher. Here the name of a man who owned the oak that 
marked the spot. In the Septuagint it is rendered vxf/^y^v. 

8. fcswfi Bethel, house of God. D? sea, great river, west. V Ai, 
heap. 

9. sag south. 

XII. 1. And the Lord said unto Abram, Get thee out of 
thy land, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, 
unto the land that I will show thee. 2. And I will make of 
thee a great nation, and bless thee, and make thy name great ; 
and thou shalt be a blessing. 3. And I will bless them that 
bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee ; and blessed in 
thee shall be all the families of the ground. 4. And Abram 
went as the Lord had spoken to him, and with him went Lot ; 
and Abram was the son of five and seventy years when he 
came out of Haran. 5. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and 
Lot his brother's son, and all their gaining that they had 
gained, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and 
they came forth to go into the land of Kenaan, and they went 
into the land of Kenaan. 6. And Abram passed through the 
land into the place of Shekem, unto the oak of Moreh ; and 
the Kenaanite was then in the land. 7. And the Lord ap- 
peared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this 
land. And he builded there an altar unto the Lord, who 
appeared unto him. 8. And he removed thence to the moun- 
tain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel 
on the west and Ai on the east ; and he builded there an altar 
to the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord. 9. And 
Abram journeyed, going on still towards the south, f 17. 



GEN. XII. 1-9. 261 

The narrative now takes leave of the rest of the Shemites, as well 
as the other branches of the human family, and confines itself to Abram. 
It is no part of the design of Scripture to trace the development of 
worldliness. It marks its source, and indicates the law of its downward 
tendency ; but then it turns away from the dark detail, to devote its 
attention to the way by which light from heaven may again pierce the 
gloom of the fallen heart. Here, then, we have the starting of a new 
spring of spiritual life in the human race. 

1-3. Having brought the affairs of Terah's family to a fit resting 
point, the sacred writer now reverts to the call of Abram. This, we 
have seen, took place when he was seventy years of age, and therefore 
five years before the death of Terah. The Lord said unto Abram. 
Four hundred and twenty-two years on the lowest calculation after the 
last recorded communication with Noah, the Lord again opens his 
mouth, to Abram. Noah, Shem, or Heber, must have been in com- 
munication with heaven, indeed, at the time of the confusion of tongues, 
and hence we have an account of that miraculous interposition. The 
call of Abram consists of a command and a promise. The command 
is to leave the place of all his old and fond associations, for a land 
which he had not yet seen, and therefore did not know. Three ties 
are to be severed in complying with this command, — his country, in 
the widest range of his affections ; his place of birth and kindred comes 
closer to his heart ; his father's house is the inmost circle of all his 
tender emotions. All these are to be resigned ; not, however, without 
reason. The reason may not be entirely obvious to the mind of Abram. 
But he has entire faith in the reasonableness of what God proposes. 
So with reason and faith he is willing to go to the unknown land. It 
is enough that God will show him the land to which he is now sent. 

2, 3. The promise corresponds to the command. If he is to lose 
much by his exile, he will also gain in the end. The promise contains 
a lower and a higher blessing. The lower blessing has three parts : 
First, I will make of thee a great nation. This will compensate for the 
loss of his country. The nation to which he had hitherto belonged 
was fast sinking into polytheism and idolatry. To escape from it and 
its defiling influence was itself a benefit ; but to be made himself the 
head of a chosen nation was a double blessing. Secondly, And bless 
thee. The place of his birth and kindred was the scene of all his past 
earthly joys. But the Lord will make up the loss to him in a purer 
and safer scene of temporal prosperity. Thirdly, And make thy name 
great. This was to compensate him for his father's house. He was 



262 THE CALL OF ABRAM. 

to be the patriarch of a new house, on account of which he would be 
known and venerated all over the world. 

The higher blessing is expressed in these remarkable terms : And 
be thou a blessing. He is to be not merely a subject of blessing, but a 
medium of blessing to others. It is more blessed to give than to receive. 
And the Lord here confers on Abram the delightful prerogative of 
dispensing good to others. The next verse expands this higher ele- 
ment of the divine promise. I will bless them that bless thee, and curse 
him that curseth thee. Here the Lord identifies the cause of Abram 
with his own, and declares him to be essentially connected with the 
weal or woe of all who come into contact with him. And blessed in 
thee shall be all the families of the ground. The ground was cursed for 
the sake of Adam, who fell by transgression. But now shall the 
ground again participate in the blessing. In thee. In Abram is this 
blessing laid up as a treasure hid in a field to be realized in due time. 
All the families of mankind shall ultimately enter into the enjoyment 
of this unbounded blessing. Thus, when the Lord saw fit to select a 
man to preserve vital piety on the earth and be the head of a race 
fitted to be the depository of a revelation of mercy, he at the same 
time designed that this step should be the means of effectually recalling 
the sin-enthralled world to the knowledge and love of himself. The 
race was twice already since the fall put upon its probation, — once 
under the promise of victory to the seed of the woman, and again under 
the covenant with Noah. In each of these cases, notwithstanding the 
growing light of revelation and accumulating evidence of the divine 
forbearance, the race had apostatised from the God of mercy, with 
lamentably few known exceptions. Yet, undeterred by the gathering 
tokens of this second apostasy, and after reiterated practical demonstra- 
tion to all men of the debasing, demoralizing effect of sin, the Lord, 
with calm determination of purpose, sets about another step in the 
great process of removing the curse of sin, dispensing the blessing of 
pardon, and eventually drawing all the nations to accept of his mercy. 
The special call of Abram contemplates the calling of the Gentiles as 
its final issue, and is therefore to be regarded as one link in a series 
of wonderful events by which the legal obstacles to the divine mercy 
are to be taken out of the way, and the Spirit of the Lord is to prevail 
with still more and more of men to return to God. 

It is sometimes inadvertently said that the Old Testament is narrow 
and exclusive, while the New Testament is broad and catholic in its 
spirit. This is a mistake. The Old and New Testaments are of one 



GEK XII. 1-9. 263 

mind on this matter. Many are called, and few chosen. This is the 
common doctrine of the New as well as of the Old. They are both 
equally catholic in proclaiming the gospel to all. The covenant with 
Adam and with Noah is still valid and sure to all who return to God ; 
and the call of Abram is expressly said to be a means of extending 
blessing to all the families of man. The New Testament does not aim 
at anything more than this ; it merely hails the approaching accom- 
plishment of the same gracious end. They both concur also in limiting 
salvation to the few who repent and believe the gospel. Even when 
Abram was called there were a few who still trusted in the God of 
mercy. According to the chronology of the Masoretic text, Heber was 
still alive, Melkizedec was contemporary with Abram, Job was probably 
later, and many other now unknown witnesses for God were doubtless 
to be found, down to the time of the exodus, outside the chosen family. 
God marks the first symptoms of decaying piety. He does not wait 
till it has died out before he calls Abram. He proceeds in a leisurely, 
deliberate manner with his .eternal purpose of mercy, and hence a 
single heir of promise suffices for three generations, until the set time 
comes for the chosen family and the chosen nation. Universalism, 
then, in the sense of the offer of mercy to man, is the rule of the Old 
and the New Testament. Particularism in the acceptance of it is the 
accident of the time. The call of Abram is a special expedient for 
providing a salvation that may be offered to all the families of the 
earth. 

In all God's teachings the near and the sensible come before the 
far and the conceivable, the present and the earthly before the eternal 
and the heavenly. Thus Abram's immediate acts of self-denial are 
leaving his country, his birthplace, his home. The promise to him is 
to be made a great nation, be blessed, and have a great name in the new 
land which the Lord would show him. This is unspeakably enhanced 
by his being made a blessing to all nations. God pursues this mode 
of teaching for several important reasons. First, the sensible and the 
present are intelligible to those who are taught. The Great Teacher 
begins with the known, and leads the mind forward to the unknown. If 
he had begun with things too high, too deep, or too far for the range of 
Abram's mental vision, he would not have come into relation with 
Abram's mind. It is superfluous to say that he might have enlarged 
Abram's view in proportion to the grandeur of the conceptions to be 
revealed. On the same principle he might have made Abram cogni- 
zant of all present and all developed truth. On the same principle he 



264 THE CALL OF ABRAM. 

might have developed all things in an instant of time, and so have had 
done with creation and providence at once. Secondly, the present and 
the sensible are the types of the future and the conceivable ; the land 
is the type of the better land ; the nation of the spiritual nation ; the 
temporal blessing of the eternal blessing ; the earthly greatness of the 
name of the heavenly. And let us not suppose that we are arrived at 
the end of all knowledge. We pique ourselves on our advance in 
spiritual knowledge beyond the age of Abram. But even we may be 
in the very infancy of mental development. There may be a land, a 
nation, a blessing, a great name, of which our present realizations or 
conceptions are but the types. Any other supposition would be a large 
abatement from the sweetness of hope's overflowing cup. Thirdly, 
these things which God now promises are the immediate form of his 
bounty, the very gifts he begins at the moment to bestow. God has 
his gift to Abram ready in his hand in a tangible form. He points to 
it and says, This is what thou presently needest ; this I give thee, with 
my blessing and favor. But, fourthly, these are the earnest and the 
germ of all temporal and eternal blessing. Man is a growing thing, 
whether as an individual or a race. God graduates his benefits 
according to the condition and capacity of the recipients. In the first 
boon of his good-will is the earnest of what he will continue to bestow 
on those who continue to walk in his ways. And as the present is 
the womb of the future, so is the external the symbol of the internal, 
the material the shadow of the spiritual, in the order of the divine 
blessing. And as events unfold themselves in the history of man and 
conceptions in his soul within, so are doctrines gradually opened up in 
the Word of God, and progressively revealed to the soul by the Spirit 
of God. 

4, 5. Abram obeys the call. He had set out from Ur under the 
revered guardianship of his aged father, Terah, with other companions, 
as the Lord had spoken unto him. Lot is now mentioned as his com- 
panion. Terah's death has been already recorded. Sarai is with him, 
of course, and therefore it is unnecessary to repeat the fact. But Lot 
is associated with him as an incidental companion for some time longer. 
The age of Abram at the second stage of his journey is now mentioned. 
This enables us to determine, as we have seen, that he departed from 
Ur five years before. 

5. This is the record of what is presumed in the close of the previous 
verse ; namely, the second setting out for Kenaan. Abram took. He 
is now the leader of the little colony, as Terah was before his death. 



GEN. XII. 1-9. 265 

Sarai, as well as Lot, is now named. The gaining they had gained 
during the five years of their residence in Haran. If Jacob became 
comparatively rich in six years (Gen. xxx. 43), so might Abram, with 
the divine blessing, in five. The souls they had gotten, — the bondser- 
vants they had acquired. Where there is a large stock of cattle, there 
must be a corresponding number of servants to attend to them. Abram 
and Lot enter the land as men of substance. They are in a position 
of independence. The Lord is realizing to Abram the blessing prom- 
ised. They start for the land of Kenaan, and at length arrive there. 
This event is made as important as it ought to be in our minds by the 
mode in which it is stated. 

6-9. Abram does not enter into immediate possession, but only 
travels through the land which the Lord had promised to show him (v. 
1). He arrives at the place of Shekem. The town was probably not 
yet in existence. It lay between Mount Gerizzim and Mount Ebal. 
It possesses a special interest as the spot where the Lord first appeared 
to Abram in the land of promise. It was afterwards dedicated to the 
Lord by being made a Levitical town, and a city of refuge. At this 
place Joshua convened an assembly of all Israel to hear his farewell 
address. " So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and 
set them a statute and an ordinance in Shekem" (Jos. xxiv. 1-25). 
The particular point in the place of Shekem where Abram halted is 
the oak of Moreh ; so called, probably, from its planter or owner. The 
oak attains to great antiquity, and a single tree, well grown, becomes 
conspicuous for its grandeur and beauty, and was often chosen in 
ancient times as a meeting-place for religious rites. 

And the Kenaanite was then in the land. This simply implies that 
the land was not open for Abram to enter upon immediate possession 
of it without challenge. Another was in possession. The sons of 
Kenaan had already arrived and preoccupied the country. It also 
intimates, or admits, of the supposition that there had been previous 
inhabitants who may have been subjugated by the invading Kenaanites. 
Thus "j» then alludes to the past, as in Gen. iv. 26. Some of these 
former inhabitants will meet us in the course of the narrative. It 
admits also of the supposition that the Kenaanites afterwards ceased 
to be its inhabitants. Hence some have inferred that this could not 
have been penned by Moses, as they were expelled after his death. 
If this supposition were the necessary or the only one implied in the 
form of expression, we should acquiesce in the conclusion that this 
sentence came from one of the prophets to whom the conservation, 
34 



2G6 THE CALL OF ABRAM. 

revision, and continuation of the living oracles were committed. But 
we have seen that two other presuppositions may be made that satisfy 
the import of the passage. Moreover, the first of the three accounts 
for the fact that Abram does not instantly enter on possession, as there 
was an occupying tenant. And, finally, the third supposition may 
fairly be, not that the Kenaanites afterwards ceased, but that they 
should afterwards cease to be in the land. This, then, as well as 
the others, admits of Moses being the writer of this interesting sen- 
tence, i 

We are inclined to think, however, that the term Kenaanite here 
means, not the whole race of Kenaan, but the special tribe so called. 
If the former were meant, the statement would be in a manner super- 
fluous, after calling the country the land of Kenaan. If the proper 
tribe be intended, then we have evidence here that they once pos- 
sessed this part of the land which was afterwards occupied by the Hivite 
and the Amorite (Gen. xxxiv. 2 ; Jos. xi. 3) ; for, at the time of the 
conquest by Abram's descendants, the mountainous land in the centre, 
including the place of Shekem, was occupied by the Amorites and 
other tribes, while the coast of the Mediterranean and the west bank of 
the Jordan was held by the Kenaanites proper (Jos. v. 1, xi. 3). This 
change of occupants had taken place before the time of Moses. 

7. And the Lord appeared unto Abram. Here, for the first time, 
this remarkable phrase occurs. It indicates that the Lord presents 
himself to the consciousness of man in any way suitable to his nature. 
It is not confined to the sight, but may refer to the hearing ( 1 Sam. 
iii. 15). The possibility of God appearing to man is antecedently 
undeniable. The fact of his having done so proves the possibility. 
On the mode of his doing this it is vain for us to speculate. The Lord 
said unto him, Unto thy seed will I give this land. " Unto thy seed," 
not unto thee. To Abram himself " he gave none inheritance in it, no, 
not so much as to set his foot on " (Acts vii. 5). " This land " which 
the Lord had now shown him, though at present occupied by the 
Kenaanite invader. An altar. This altar is erected on the spot 
which is hallowed by the appearance of the Lord to Abram. The place 
of Shekem might have been supposed to have received its name from 
Shekem, a son of Gilead (Num. xxvi. 31), did we not meet with She- 
kem, the son of Hamor, in this very place in the time of Jacob (Gen. 
xxxiv. 2). We learn from this the precariousness of the inference 
that the name of a place is of later origin because a person of that 
name lived there at a later period. The place of Shekem was doubt- 



GEK XII. 10-20. 2G7 

less called after a Shekem antecedent to Abram. Shekem and Moreh 
may have preceded even the Kenaanites, for anything we know. 

8, 9. From the oak of Moreh Abram now moves to the hill east of 
Bethel, and pitches his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. 
These localities are still recognized — the former as Beiten, and the 
latter as Tell er-Rijmeh (the mount of the heap). Bethel was a place, 
adjacent to which was the town called Luz at the first (Gen. xxviii. 
10). Jacob gave this name to the place twice (Gen. xxviii. 19, xxxv. 
15). The name, then, was not first given at the second nomination by 
him. It follows that it may not have been first given at his first nom- 
ination. Accordingly we meet with it as an existing name in Abram's 
time, without being constrained to account for it by supposing the 
present narrative to have been composed in its present form after the 
time of Jacob's visit. On the other hand, we may regard it as an 
interesting trace of early piety having been present in the land even 
before the arrival of Abram. We shall meet with other corroborating 
proofs. Bethel continued afterwards to be a place hallowed by the 
presence of God, to which the people resorted for counsel in the war 
with Benjamin (Judg. xx. 18, 26, 31, xxi. 2), and in which Jeroboam 
set up one of the golden calves (1 Kings xii. 29). 

On the hill east of this sacred ground Abram built another altar, 
and called upon the name of the Lord. Here we have the reappear- 
ance of an ancient custom, instituted in the family of Adam after the 
birth of Enok (Gen. iv. 26). Abram addresses God by his proper 
name, Jehovah, with an audible voice, in his assembled household. 
This, then, is a continuation of the worship of Adam, with additional 
light according to the progressive development of the moral nature of 
man. But Abram has not yet any settled abode in the land. He is 
only surveying its several regions, and feeding his flocks as he finds 
an opening. Hence he continues his journey southward. 



XXXVIII. ABRAM IN EGYPT. — Gen. xii. 10-20. 

15. hSPVB Par oh, onro. Koptic for king, with the masculine article 
pi. or p. P-ouro, the king. If we separate the article p. from the 
Hebrew form, we have i"is kta ] for king, which may be compared with 
h?1 pastor, leader, and the Latin rex, king. This is the common 



268 ABEAM IN EGYPT. 

title of the Egyptian sovereigns, to which we have the personal name 
occasionally added, as Pharoh Neko, Pharoh Hophrah. 

10. And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went 
down into Mizraim to sojourn there ; for grievous was the 
famine in the land. 11. And it came to pass, when he was 
come near to enter into Mizraim, that he said unto Sarai his 
wife, Behold, now, I know that thou art a woman fair to look 
upon. 12. And it shall come to pass that the Mizrites shall 
see thee and say, This is his wife ; and they will kill me, but 
they will save thee alive. 13. Say now, thou art my sister ; 
that it may be well with me for thy sake, and my soul may 
live because of thee. 14. And it came to pass, when Abram 
was gone into Mizraim, that the Mizrites beheld the woman 
that she was very fair. 15. And the princes of Pharoh saw 
her, and commended her to Pharoh ; and the woman was 
taken into Pharoh's house. 16. And he treated Abram well 
for her sake ; and he had sheep and oxen and he-asses and 
men-servants and maid-servants and she-asses and camels, 
17. And the Lord plagued Pharoh and his house with great 
plagues, on account of Sarai, Abram's wife. 18. And Pharoh 
called Abram and said, What is this thou hast done unto me ? 
Why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife ? 19. Why 
saidst thou, She is my sister, and I took her to me to wife ? 
And now behold thy wife, take her and go thy way. 20. And 
Pharoh commanded men concerning him ; and they sent him 
away, and his wife, and all that he had. 

10. This first visit of Abram to Mizraim, or Egypt, is occasioned 
by the famine in the land of promise. This land is watered by peri- 
odical rains. A season of drought arrests the progress of vegetation, 
and brings on a famine. But in Egypt, the fertility of the loamy soil 
depends not on local showers, but on the annual rise of the Nile, which is 
fed by the rains of a far-distant mountain range. Hence, when the land 
of Kenaan was wasted by drought and consequent famine, Egypt was 



GEN. XII. 10-20. 269 

generally so productive as to be the granary of the neighboring coun- 
tries. As Kenaan was the brother of Mizraim, the intercourse between 
the two countries in which they dwelt was natural and frequent. Dry 
seasons and dearth of provisions seem to have been of frequent occur- 
rence in the land of Kenaan (Gen. xxvi. 1, xli. 56, 57). Even Egypt 
itself was not exempt from such calamitous visitations. Famine is 
one of God's rods for the punishment of the wicked and the correction 
of the penitent (2 Sam. xxiv. 13). It visits Abram even in the land 
of promise. Doubtless the wickedness of the inhabitants was great 
even in his day. Abram himself was not out of the need of that tribu- 
lation that worketh patience, experience, and hope. He may have 
been left to himself under this trial, that he might find out by experi- 
ence his own weakness, and at the same time the faithfulness and 
omnipotence of Jehovah the promiser. In the moment of his perplexity 
he flees for refuge to Egypt, and the Lord having a lesson for him, 
there permits him to enter that land of plenty. 

1 1-13. It is not without misgivings, however, that Abram approaches 
Egypt. All the way from Ur to Haran, from Haran to the land of 
Kenaan, and from north to south of the land in which he was a stranger, 
we hear not a word of apprehension. But now he betakes himself to 
an expedient which had been preconcerted between him and Sarai 
before they set out on their earthly pilgrimage (Gen. xx» 13). There 
are some obvious reasons for the change from composure to anxiety 
he now betrays. Abram was hitherto obeying the voice of the Lord, 
and walking in the path of duty, and therefore he was full of unhesi- 
tating confidence in the divine protection. Now he may be pursuing 
his own course, and, without waiting patiently for the divine counsel, 
venturing to cross the boundary of the land of promise. He may 
therefore be without the fortifying assurance of the divine approval. 
There is often a whisper of this kind heard in the soul, even when it 
is not fully conscious of the delinquency, which occasions it. Again, 
the countries through which he had already passed were inhabited by 
nomadic tribes, each kept in check by all the others, all unsettled in their 
habits, and many of them not more potent than himself. The Kenaan- 
ites spoke the same language with himself, and were probably only a 
dominant race among others whose language they spoke, if they did not 
adopt. But in Egypt all was different. Mizraim had seven sons, and, 
on the average, the daughters are as numerous as the sons. In eight 
or nine generations there might be from half a million to a million of 
inhabitants in Egypt, if we allow five daughters as the average of a 



270 ABRAM IX EGYPT. 

family. The definite area of the arable ground on the two sides of the 
Nile, its fertilization by a natural cause without much human labor, the 
periodical regularity of the inundation, and the extraordinary abundance 
of the grain crops, combined both to multiply the population with great 
rapidity, and to accelerate amazingly the rise and growth of fixed 
institutions and a stable government. Here there were a settled 
country with a foreign tongue, a prosperous people, and a powerful 
sovereign. All this rendered it more perilous to enter Egypt than 
Kenaan. 

If Abram is about to enter Egypt of his own accord, without any 
divine intimation, it is easy to understand why he resorts to a device 
of his own to escape the peril of assassination. In an arbitrary gov- 
ernment, where the will of the sovereign is law, and the passions are 
uncontrolled, public or private resolve is sudden, and execution sum- 
mary. The East still retains its character in this respect. In these 
circumstances, Abram proposes to Sarai to conceal their marriage, and 
state that she was his sister ; which was perfectly true, as she was the 
daughter of his father, though not of his mother. At a distance of 
three or four thousand years, with all the development of mind which 
a completed Bible and an advanced philosophy can bestow, it is easy 
to pronounce, with dispassionate coolness, the course of conduct here 
proposed to be immoral and imprudent. It is not incumbent on us, 
indeed, to defend it; but neither does it become us to be harsh or 
excessive in our censure. In the state of manners and customs which 
then prevailed in Egypt, Abram and Sarai were not certainly bound 
to disclose all their private concerns to every impertinent inquirer. 
The seeming simplicity and experience which Abram betrays in seek- 
ing to secure his personal safety by an expedient which exposed to 
risk his wife's chastity and his own honor, are not to be pressed too 
far. The very uncertainty concerning the relation of the strangers to 
each other tended to abate that momentary caprice in the treatment of 
individuals which is the result of a despotic government. And the 
prime fault and folly of Abram consisted in not waiting for the divine 
direction in leaving the land of promise, and in not committing himself 
wholly to the divine protection when he did take that step. 

It may seem strange that the Scripture contains no express disap- 
probation of the conduct of Abram. But its manner is to affirm the 
great principles of moral truth, on suitable occasions, with great clear- 
ness and decision ; and in ordinary circumstances simply to record the 
actions of its characters with faithfulness, leaving it to the reader's 



GEN. XII. 10-20. 271 

intelligence to mark their moral quality. And God's mode of teaching 
the individual is to implant a moral principle in the heart, which, after 
many struggles with temptation, will eventually root out all lingering 
aberrations. 

Sarai was sixty-five years of age (Gen. xvii. 17) at the time when 
Abram describes her as a woman fair to look upon. But we are to 
remember that beauty does not vanish with middle age ; that Sarai's 
age corresponds with twenty-five or thirty years in modern times, as 
she was at this time not half the age to which men were then wont to 
live ; that she had no family or other hardship to bring on premature 
decay ; and that the women of Egypt were far from being distinguished 
for regularity of feature or freshness of complexion. 

14-16. The inadequacy of Abram's expedient appears in the issue, 
which is different from what he expected. Sarai is admired for her 
beauty, and, being professedly single, is selected as a wife for Pharoh ; 
while Abram, as her brother, is munificently entertained and rewarded. 
His property seems to be enumerated according to the time of acquire- 
ment, or the quantity, and not the quality of each kind. Sheep and 
oxen and he-asses he probably brought with him from Kenaan ; men- 
servants and maid-servants were no doubt augmented in Egypt. For 
she-asses the Septuagint has mules. These, and the camels, may have 
been received in Egypt. The camel is the carrier of the desert. 
Abram had now become involved in perplexities, from which he had 
neither the wisdom nor the power to extricate himself. With what 
bitterness of spirit he must have kept silence, received these accessions 
to his wealth which he dared not to refuse, and allowed Sarai to be 
removed from his temporary abode ! His cunning device had saved 
his own person for the time ; but his beautiful and beloved wife is torn 
from his bosom. 

17. The Lord, who had chosen him, unworthy though he was, yet 
not more unworthy than others, to be the agent of his gracious purpose, 
now interposes to effect his deliverance. And the Lord plagued Pha- 
roh. The mode of the divine interference is suited to have the desired 
effect on the parties concerned. As Pharoh is punished, we' conclude 
he was guilty in the eye of heaven in this matter. He committed a 
breach of hospitality by invading the private abode of the stranger. 
He further infringed the law of equity between man and man in the 
most tender point, by abstracting, if not with violence, at least with a 
show of arbitrary power which could not be resisted, a female, whether 
sister or wife, from the home of her natural guardian without the con- 



272 ABEAM AND LOT SEPARATE. 

sent of either. A deed of ruthless self-will, also, is often rendered 
more heinous by a blamable inattention to the character or position 
of him who is wronged. So it was with Pharoh. Abram was a man 
of blameless life and inoffensive manners. He was, moreover, the 
chosen and special servant of the Most High God. Pharoh, however, 
does not condescend to inquire who the stranger is whom he is about 
to wrong ; and is thus unwittingly involved in an aggravated crime. 
But the hand of the Almighty brings even tyrants to their senses. 
And his house. The princes of Pharoh were accomplices in his crime 
(v. 15), and his domestics were concurring with him in carrying it into 
effect. But even apart from any positive consent or connivance in a 
particular act, men, otherwise culpable, are brought into trouble in 
this world by the faults of those with whom they are associated. On 
account of Sarai. Pharoh was made aware of the cause of the plagues 
or strokes with which he was now visited. 

18-20. Pharoh upbraids Abram for his deception, and doubtless not 
without reason. He then commands his men to dismiss him and his, 
unharmed, from the country. These men were probably an escort for 
his safe conduct out of Egypt. Abram was thus reproved through the 
mouth of Pharoh, and will be less hasty in abandoning the land of 
promise, and betaking himself to carnal resources. 



XXXIX. ABRAM AND LOT SEPARATE. — Gen. xiiL 

7. iinfe Perizzi, descendant of Paraz. ns leader, or inhabitant of 
the plain or open country. 

10. *03 circle, border, vale, cake, talent; r. bow, bend, go round, 
dance, "jw Jardan, descending. Usually with the article in prose. 
12S Tso'ar, smallness. 

18. vrmq Mamre, fat, strong, ruler, "pan Chebron, conjunction, 
confederacy. 

XIII. 1. And Abram went up out of Mizraim, he and his 
wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the south. 

2. And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold. 

3. And he went on his journeys from the south, even to 
Bethel, unto the place where his tent had been at the begin- 



GEN. XIII. 273 

ning, between Bethel and Ai. 4. Unto the place of the altar 
which he had made there at the first ; and there Abrani called 
on the name of the Lord. 

5. And Lot also, who went with Abram, had flocks and 
herds and tents. 6. And the land did not bear them to dwell 
together ; for their gaining was great, and they could not dwell 
together. 7. And there was a strife between the herdmen of 
Abram's cattle and the herdmen of Lot's cattle ; and the 
Kenaanite and Perizzite were then dwelling in the land. 8. 
And Abram said unto Lot, Let there be now no striving be- 
tween me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herd- 
men ; for we are brethren. 9. Is not the whole land before 
thee ? Separate thyself now from me : if to the left hand, 
then I will go to the right ; or if to the right hand, then I will 
go to the left. 10. And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all 
the vale of the Jordan that it was well-watered ; before the 
Lord destroyed Sodom and Amor ah, like the garden of the 
Lord, like the land of Mizraim as thou goest unto Zoar. 11. 
Then Lot chose him all the vale of the Jordan, and Lot jour- 
neyed east ; and they separated themselves the one from the 
other. 12. And Abram dwelled in the land of Kenaan ; and 
Lot dwelled in the cities of the vale, and moved his tent 
towards Sodom. 18. And the men of Sodom were wicked, 
and sinners before the Lord exceedingly. 

14. And the Lord said unto Abram, after that Lot was sep- 
arated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the 
place where thou art, northward and southward and eastward 
and westward. 15. For all the land which thou seest, to thee 
will I give it, and to thy seed forever. 16. And I will make 
thy seed as the dust of the earth ; so that if a man can num- 
ber the dust of the earth, then may thy seed be numbered. 
17. Arise, walk through the land, in the length of it and in 
the breadth of it ; for to thee will I give it. 18. Then Abram 
moved his tent, and went and dwelled by the oaks of Mamre, 
35 



274 ABRAM AND LOT SEPARATE. 

which are in Hebron, and there he built an altar unto the 
Lord. 1 18. 



Lot has been hitherto kept in association with Abram by the ties of 
kinmanship. But it becomes gradually manifest that he has an inde- 
pendent interest, and is no longer disposed to follow the fortunes of 
the chosen of God. In the natural course of things this under-feeling 
comes to the surface. Their serfs come into collision ; and as Abram 
makes no claim of authority over Lot, he offers him the choice of a 
dwelling-place in the land. This issues in a peaceable separation, in 
which Abram appears to great advantage. The chosen of the Lord is 
now in the course of providence isolated from all associations of kin- 
dred. He stands alone, in a strange land. He again obeys the summons 
to survey the land promised to him and his seed in perpetuity. 

1-4. Went up out of Mizraim. Egypt is a low-lying valley, out of 
which the traveller ascends into Arabia Petraea and the hill-country 
of Kenaan. Abram returns, a wiser and a better man. When called 
to leave his native land, he had forthwith obeyed. Such obedience 
evinced the existence of the new power of godliness in his breast. 
But he gets beyond the land of promise into a land of carnality, and 
out of the way of truth into a way of deceit. Such a course betrays 
the struggle between moral good and evil which has begun within 
him. This discovery humbles and vexes him. Self-condemnation and 
repentance are at work within him. We do not know that all these 
feelings rise into consciousness, but we have no doubt that their result, 
in a subdued, sobered, chastened spirit, is here, and will soon manifest 
itself. 

And Lot with him. Lot accompanied him into Egypt, for he comes 
with him out of it. The south is so called in respect, not to Egypt, 
but to the land of promise. It acquired this title before the times of 
the patriarch, among the Hebrew-speaking tribes inhabiting it. The 
great riches of Abram consist in cattle and the precious metals. The 
former is the chief form of wealth in the East. Abram's flocks are 
mentioned in preparation for the following occurrence. He advances 
north to the place between Bethel and Ai, and perhaps still further, 
according to verse 4, to the place of Shekem, where he built the first 
altar in the land. He now calls on the name of the Lord. The pro- 
cess of contrition in a new heart, has come to its right issue in confes- 
sion and supplication. The sense of acceptance with God, which he 



GEN. XIII. 275 

had before experienced in these places of meeting with God, he has 
now recovered. The spirit of adoption, therefore, speaks within him. 

5-7. The collision. Lot now also abounded in the wealth of the 
East. The two opulent sheiks (elders, heads of houses) cannot dwell 
together any more. Their serfs come to strife. The carnal temper 
comes out among their dependents. Such disputes were unavoidable 
in the circumstances. Neither party had any title to the land. Landed 
property was not yet clearly defined or secured by law. The land 
therefore was a common, where everybody availed himself of the best 
spot for grazing he could find unoccupied. We can easily understand 
what facilities and temptations this would offer for the strong to over- 
bear the weak. We meet with many incidental notices of such oppres- 
sion (Gen. xxi. 25, xxvi. 15-22; Ex. ii. 16-10). The folly and 
impropriety of quarrelling among kinsmen about pasture grounds on 
the present occasion is enhanced by the circumstance that Abram and 
Lot are mere strangers among the Kenaanites and the Perizzites, the 
settled occupants of the country. Custom had no doubt already given 
the possessor a prior claim. Abram and Lot were there merely on 
sufferance, because the country was thinly peopled, and many fertile 
spots were still unoccupied. The Perizzite is generally associated with, 
and invariably distinguished from, the Kenaanite (Gen. xv. 20, xxxiv. 
30 ; Ex. iii. 8, 17). This tribe is not found among the descendants 
of Kenaan in the table of nations. They stand side by side with them, 
and seem therefore not to be a subject, but an independent race. They 
may have been a Shemite clan, roaming over the land before the ar- 
rival of the Hamites. They seem to have been by name and custom 
rather wanderers or nomads than dwellers in the plain or in the vil- 
lages. They dwelt in the mountains of Judah and Ephraim (Judges 
i. 4; Jos. xvii. 15). They are noticed even so late as in the time 
of Ezra (ix. 1). The presence of two powerful tribes, independent 
of each other, was favorable to the quiet and peaceful residence of 
Abram and Lot, but not certainly to their living at feud with each other. 

8, 9. The strife among the underlings does not alienate their mas- 
ters. Abram appeals to the obligations of brotherhood. He proposes 
to obviate any further diffeience by yielding to Lot the choice of all 
the land. The heavenly principle of forbearance evidently holds the 
supremacy in Abram's breast. He walks in the moral atmosphere of 
the sermon on the mount (Matt. vi. 28-42). 

10-13. Lot accepts the offer of his noble-hearted kinsman. He 
cannot do otherwise, as he is the companion, while his uncle is the 



276 ABRAM AND LOT SEPARATE. 

principal. He willingly concedes to Abram his present position, and, 
after a lingering attendance on his kinsman, retires to take the ground 
of self-dependence. Outward and earthly motives prevail with him in 
the selection of his new abode. He is charmed by the well-watered 
lowlands bordering on the Jordan and its affluents. He is here less 
liable to a periodical famine, and he roams with his serfs and herds in 
the direction of Sodom. This town and Amorah (Gomorrah), were still 
flourishing at the time of Lot's arrival. The country in which they 
stood was of extraordinary beauty and fertility. The river Jordan, 
one of the sources of which is at Panium, after flowing through the 
waters of Merom, or the lake Semechonitis (Huleh), falls into the Sea 
of Galilee or Kinnereth, which is six hundred and fifty-three feet be- 
low the level of the Mediterranean, and thence descends into the basin 
of the Salt Sea, which is now thirteen hundred and sixteen feet beneath 
the same level, by a winding course of about two hundred miles, over 
twenty-seven threatening rapids. This river may well be called the 
Descender. We do not know on what part of the border of Jordan 
Lot looked down from the heights about Shekem or Ai, as the country 
underwent a great change at a later period. But its appearance was 
then so attractive as to bear comparison with the garden of the Lord 
and the land of Egypt. The garden of Eden still dwelt in the recol- 
lections of men. The fertility of Egypt had been lately witnessed by 
the two kinsmen. It was a valley fertilized by the overflowing of the 
Nile, as this vale was by the Jordan and its tributary streams. As 
thou goest unto Zoar. The origin of this name is given in Gen. xix. 
20-22. It lay probably to the south of the Salt Sea, in the wady 
Kerak. 11. And Lot journeyed east (CiJ^). From the hill-country 
of Shekem or Ai the Jordan lay to the east. 

12. The men of Sodom were wicked. The higher blessing of good 
society, then, was wanting in the choice of Lot. It is probable he was 
a single man when he parted from Abram, and therefore that he mar- 
ried a woman of Sodom. He has in that case fallen into the snare of 
matching, or, at all events, mingling with the ungodly. This was the 
damning sin of the antediluvians (Gen. vi. 1-7). Sinners before the 
Lord exceedingly. Their country was as the garden of the Lord. But 
the beauty of the landscape and the superabundance of the luxuries it 
afforded, did not abate the sinful disposition of the inhabitants. Their 
moral corruption only broke forth into greater vileness of lust, and 
more daring defiance of heaven. They sinned exceedingly and before 
the Lord. Lot has fallen into the very vortex of vice and blasphemy. 



GEN. XIII. 277 

14-18. The man chosen of God now stands alone. He has evinced 
an humble and self-renouncing spirit. This presents a suitable occasion 
for the Lord to draw nigh and speak to his servant. His works are 
reassuring. The Lord has not yet done with showing him the land. 
He therefore calls upon him to look northward and southward and 
eastward and westward. He then promises again to give all the land 
which he saw, as far as his eye could reach, to him and to his seed 
forever. Abram is here regarded as the head of a chosen seed, and 
hence the bestowment of this fair territory on the race is an actual 
grant of it to the head of the race. The term *' forever," for a perpet- 
ual possession, means as long as the order of things to which it belongs 
lasts. The holder of a promise has his duties to perform, and the 
neglect of these really cancels the obligation to perpetuate the cove- 
nant. This is a plain point of equity between parties to a covenant, 
and regulates all that depends en the personal acts of the covenanter. 
He, thirdly, announces that he will make his seed as the dust of the 
earth. This multitude of seed, even when we take the ordinary sense 
which the form of expression bears in popular use, far transcends the 
productive powers of the promised land in its utmost extent. Yet to 
Abram, who was accustomed to the petty tribes that then roved over 
the pastures of Mesopotamia and Palestine, this disproportion would 
not be apparent. A people who should fill the land of Canaan, would 
seem to him innumerable. But we see that the promise begins already 
to enlarge itself beyond the bounds of the natural seed of Abram. 
17. He is again enjoined to walk over his inheritance, and contemplate 
it in all its length and breadth, with the reiterated assurance that it 
will be his. 

18. Abram obeys the voice of heaven. He moves his tent from the 
northern station, where he had parted with Lot, and encamps by the 
oaks of Mamre, an Amorite sheik. He loves the open country, as he 
is a stranger, and deals in flocks and herds. The oaks, otherwise 
rendered by Onk. and the Vulg. plains of Mamre, are said to be in 
Hebron, a place and town about twenty miles south of Jerusalem, on 
. the way to Beersheba. It is a town of great antiquity, having been 
built seven years before Zoan (Tanis) in Egypt (Num. xiii. 22). It 
was sometimes called Mamre in Abram's time, from his confederate 
of that name. It was also named Kiriath Arba, the city of Arba, a 
great man among the Anakim (Jos. xv. 13, 14). But on being taken 
by Kaleb it recovered the name of Hebron. It is now el-Khulil (the 
friend, that is, of God ; a designation of Abram). The variety of 



278 ABRAM RESCUES LOT. 

name indicates variety of masters ; first, a Shemite it may be, then 
the Amorites, then the Hittites (Gen. xxiii.), then the Anakim, then 
Judah, and lastly the Mahometans. 

A third altar is here built by Abram. His wandering course re- 
quires a varying place of worship. It is the Omnipresent whom he 
adores. The previous visits of the Lord had completed the restora- 
tion of his inward peace, security, and liberty of access to God, which 
had been disturbed by his descent to Egypt, and the temptation that 
had overcome him there. He feels himself again at peace with God, 
and his fortitude is renewed. He grows in spiritual knowledge and 
practice under the great Teacher. 



XL. ABRAM RESCUES LOT. — Gen. xiv. 

1. ^STrait Amraphel ; r. unknown. ifi^R Ariok, leonine? r. "*Sk 
a lion : a name reappearing in the time of Daniel (ii. 14). l&|x 
Ellasar (r. un.) is identified with Larsa or Larancha, the Aaptcrcra or 
Aajoayuv of the Greeks, now Senkereh, a town of lower Babylonia, 
between Mugheir (Ur) and Warka (Erek) on the left bank of the 
Frat. ^BsVtTS Kedorla'omer, was compared by Col. Rawlinson with 
Kudur-mapula or mabuk, whose name is found on the bricks of Chal- 
daea, and whose title is Apda martu, ravager of the west. He trans- 
lates it " servant of Lagamer," one of the national divinities of Susiana. 
It is also compared with Kedar el-Ahmar, " Kedar the Red," a hero 
in Arabian story, ^yiti Tidal, terror, n^ia Goim, nations. 

2. sna Bera e , gift? Ss^a Birsha, long and thick? Arab, axato 
Shinab, coolness ? S"ra^.i* Admah, reel soil, lax^d Shemeber, high- 
soaring ? fi^bs Tseboim, gazelles, "ba Bela, devouring. 

3. Di'nb Siddim, plains, fields. 

5. t5\HSl Rephaim, the still, the shades, the giants. D^^J? rftPTCMJ 
'Ashteroth Qurnaim, ewes of the two horns ; according to Gesen., stars 
of the two horns. The first word may be singular, ewe, or star. The 
latter meaning is gained by connecting the word with the Pers. sitareh 
and the Greek acrr-qp, star. Ashteroth is the moon or the planet 
Venus, whence Astarte. d^Tit Zuzim ; r. glance, gush. Wn Ham, 
rush, sound, crowd. aWK Emim, terrible, filti Shaveh, plain, d^np.j? 
Qiriathaim, two cities ; r. meet. 

6. h^jVi Chori, troglodyte ; v. bore ; n. cave. Wti Se'ir, rough. 



GEN. XIV. 279 

shaggy. V^x El, tree, oak, terebinth, palm. *j^XQ Paran, bushy, or cav- 
ernous. 

7. ^3'-V : ia *,"2 'En-mishpat, well of judgment d'-jjS Qadesh, conse- 
crated. "Jp^s 'Amaleki, a people that licks up. "lEft "j'ssn Chatsat- 
son-tamar, cutting of the palm. 

13. "nas 'Ibri, a descendant of Eber. Vsdx, Eshkol, cluster of 
grapes. "03 \Aner ; r. un. 

14. 'j'l Dan, ruler, judge. 

15. fiain Chobah, hidden. pWtt Dammeseq. quad. ; r. hasty, 
active, alert. 

18. pTjrsb'g Malkitsedeq, Hw^r o/* righteousness. nVj Shalem, 
peace. "b:< El, lasting, strong ; strength. 
20. ■}&», £ft'v6, deliver ; r. m^, may. 



XIY. 1. And it came to pass in the days of Amraphel, 
king of Shinar ; Ariok, king of Ellasar ; Kedorlaomer, king 
of Elam ; and Tidal, king of Goim, 2. That they made war 
with Bera, king of Sodom ; and with Birsha, king of Amorah ; 
Shinab, king of Admah ; and Shemeber, king of Zeboim ; and 
the king of Bela, that is, Zoar. 3. All these joined together 
in the dale of Siddim, which is the Salt Sea. 4. Twelve years 
had they served Kedorlaomer, and the thirteenth year they 
rebelled. 5. And in the fourteenth year came Kedorlaomer 
and the kings that were with him, and smote the Rephaim in 
Ashteroth-carnaim, and the Zuzim in Ham, and the Emim in 
the plain of Kiriathaim. 6. And the Horite in their mount 
Seir, unto el-Paran, which is by the wilderness. 7. And they 
returned and came to En-mishpat, that is, Kadesh, and smote 
all the field of the Amalekite, and also the Amorite, that dwelt 
in Hazazon-tamar. 8. Then came out the king of Sodom, and 
the king of Amorah, and the king of Admah, and the king of 
Zeboim, and the king of Bela, that is, Zoar ; and they joined 
battle with them in the dale of Siddim. 9. With Kedorlao- 
mer, king of Elam ; and Tidal, king of Goim ; and Amraphel, 
king of Shinar ; and Ariok, king of Ellasar : four kings with 
five. 10. And the dale of Siddim was full of pits of asphalt, 



280 ABRAM RESCUES LOT. 

and the kings of Sodom and Amorah fled and fell in there ; 
and they that remained fled to the mountain. 11. And they 
took all the goods of Sodom and Amorah, and all their vict- 
uals, and went away. 12. And they took Lot and his goods, 
brother's son of Abram, and went away ; for he was dwelling 
in Sodom. 

13. Then came a fugitive, and told Abram the Hebrew ; 
and he was abiding by the oaks of Mamre the Amorite, brother 
of Eshkol and brother of Aner ; and these were confederate 
with Abram. 14. And Abram heard that his brother was 
taken captive, and drew out his trained men, born in his house, 
eighteen and three hundred, and pursued unto Dan. 15. And 
he divided himself against them by night, he and his servants, 
and smote them ; and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on 
the left hand of Damascus. 16. And he brought back all the 
goods, and also Lot, his brother, and his goods brought he 
back, and also the women and the people. 

17. And the king of Sodom came out to meet him on his 
return from smiting Kedorlaomer, and the kings that were 
with him, at the dale of Shaveh, which is the King's dale. 18. 
And Melkizedec, king of Shalem, brought forth bread and 
wine ; and he was priest to the most high God. 19. And he 
blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, 
Founder of heaven and earth. 20. And blessed be the most 
high God, who hath delivered thy foes into thy hand. And 
he gave him a tithe of all. 21. And the king of Sodom said 
unto Abram, Give me the persons, and take the goods to thy- 
self. 22. And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lifted 
up my hand to the Lord, the most high God, Founder of 
heaven and earth, 23. That from a thread even to a shoe- 
latchet I will not take of all that is thine ; and thou shalt not 
say, I made Abram rich : 24. Save only that which the young 
men have eaten, and the portion of the men who went with 
me, Aner, Eshkol, and Mamre ; let them take their por- 
tion. § 27. 



GEN. XIV. 281 

The community of feeling and of faith was not yet wholly broken 
up between Abram and Lot, or between them and the nations out of 
whom Abram had been called. An interesting glimpse is at the same 
time presented of the daring and doing of fierce ambition in those early 
times. A confederacy of potentates enter upon an extensive raid or 
foray, in which Lot is taken captive. This rouses the clannish or fam- 
ily affection of Abram, who pursues, overtakes, and defeats the retreat- 
ing enemy, and recovers his friend, as well as all the prisoners, and 
property that had been taken. On his return he receives refreshment 
and blessing from a native prince who is priest to the most high God. 

1-12. The raid is here minutely described. The dominant confed- 
eracy consists of four kings. Many generations back the first world- 
power, consisting of four cities, was established by Nimrod in the land 
of Shinar (Gen. x. 8-10). This has now given way to a world-con- 
federacy, consisting of four kings. From the vicinity of the places in 
which they reigned it is evident that they were petty princes of domains 
varying from a town and its suburbs to a comparatively extensive 
territory. The first, Amraphel, is king of Shinar. He is therefore the 
successor of Nimrod, and the sovereign of the most ancient kingdom, and 
on these grounds occupies the first place in the list. But this kingdom 
is no longer the sole or even the supreme power. Amraphel is probably 
the descendant of Nimrod, and a Kushite. The second, Ariok, is king 
of Ellasar. If this town be the same as Larsa, lying between the Frat 
and the Shat el- Hie, the land of Shinar has been divided between two 
sovereigns, and no longer belongs entirely to the successor of Nimrod. 
Lower Shinar includes also Ur of the Kasdim ; and hence Ariok prob- 
ably represents that race. The third, Kedorlaomer, is king of Elam, 
or Elymais, a country east of the lower Tigris, and separated by it 
from Shinar. He is probably a Shemite, as the country over which 
he ruled received its name from a son of Shem (Gen. x. 22). He is 
the lord paramount of the others, and commander-in-chief of the united 
forces. Hence the Hamite seems to have already succumbed to the 
Shemite. The fourth, Tidel, is designated " king of Goim." Goim 
means nations ; and it is doubtful whether it denotes here a special 
nation or a congeries of tribes. The Gentiles, specially so called, seem 
to have been Japhethites (Gen. x. 5). It is obvious that four nation- 
alities are here leagued together, corresponding probably to the Kiprat 
arbat, four nations or tongues mentioned by Rawlinson (Anc. Mon. I. 
p. G9). But Kedorlaomer, king of Elam, is clearly not a Kushite. The 
only question seems to be whether he is a Shemite or a Japhethite, or 



989 



ABRAM RESCUES LOT. 



Arian, in which race the Shemite was ultimately absorbed. If the 
former alternative be adopted, we may have two Shemite languages 
among the four. If the latter be accepted, Kedorlaomer is an Arian ; 
Tidal, a Turanian ; Amraphel, a Hamite ; and Ariok, a Shemite. In 
either case the Kushite has become subordinate, and a Japhethite or a 
Shemite has attained the predominance. 

2, 3. They made war. Shinar was the central region from which 
the different branches of the human family dispersed after the confu- 
sion of tongues. It is possible that the mother country claimed some 
supremacy over the colonies. Shinar was also a great centre of 
commerce, and the cities of the dale of Siddim formed another, of 
secondary importance. Intercourse between the two countries was 
therefore frequent. Abram himself had come from Ur Kasdim. The 
spirit of despotism had descended from Nimrod to the present potentates 
of the East, and prompted them to aim at universal empire. The five 
kings are the petty sovereigns, each of a single town and its neighbor- 
hood. The area in which these towns lay was very circumscribed. 
With the exception of the territory of Bela it was afterwards sub- 
merged and formed part of the basin of the Salt Sea. Hence Siddim 
is said to be the Salt Sea. The dale is the deep valley or glen in 
which these kings dwelt on the banks of the Jordan, or the salt lake 
into which it flowed. Of the five cities, Sodom was the chief in power, 
luxury, and wickedness ; whence it is mentioned first. Bela is also 
called Zoar, the little, and hence is placed last ; even the name of its 
king is not given. All these joined together. They formed a league 
in self-defence, and marched out to meet the enemy in the dale of 
Siddim. 

4—7. The narrative here reverts to the previous circumstances which 
gave occasion to the present raid. Twelve years had they served Kedor- 
laomer. These years date probably from the commencement of his 
reign. They may have been previously dependent on the dominant 
power in Shinar, and connected with it by national descent. If Kedor- 
laomer had wrested the supremacy from the king of Shinar, and so 
was regarded as an alien by the princes of Siddim, their coolness might 
gradually ripen into disaffection. In the thirteenth year they rebelled, 
and in the fourteenth Kedorlaomer came to quell the revolt. This 
military expedition embraced far loftier objects than the mere subjuga- 
tion of the Pentapolis in the dale of Siddim. In passing from Shinar 
the invaders must have marched in a northwesterly direction along the 
Frat, touching upon Tadmor and Damascus. "We are not informed 



GEN. XIV. 283 

whether they held any sway or made any conquest in these intervening 
regions. But they overran the country that stretches along the whole 
east side of the Jordan, and the parts south and west of the Salt Sea. 

The Rephaim lay in Peraea. Some of them also were once found 
on the west side of the Jordan (Gen. xv. 20), where they gave name 
to the valley of Rephaim (Wady el-Wercl), southwest of Jerusalem, 
on the way to Bethlehem (Jos. xv. 8), occupied part of Mount Ephraim 
(Jos. xvii. 15), and lingered for a long time among the Philistines 
(2 Sam. xxi. 16, ff.). They were a tall or gigantic race. They were 
not Kenaanites, but seem to have entered the country before them. 
They were conquered in Peraea by the Amorites, a branch of the 
Kenaanite family ; and by the descendants of Lot, the Ammonites and 
Moabites. A remnant of them only lingered in the country when the 
Israelites arrived (Deut. ii. 20, iii. .11, 13). They may have been 
Shemites or Japhethites. The site of Ashteroth Carnaim has not been 
ascertained. Ritter finds it in Tell Ash arch. Porter suggests 'Afineh, 
eight miles from Busrah, as the Samaritan version has 'Aphinit for 
'Ashtaroth. 

The Zuzim dwelt between the Jabbok and the Arnon. They are 
supposed to be the same as the Zamzummin, who were dispossessed by 
the Ammonites. If so, they were a branch of the Rephaim (Deut. 
ii. 20). Their town, Ham, is of unknown site. 

The Emim were also accounted Rephaim. They lay on the east of 
the Salt Sea, and were afterwards conquered by the Moabites, who 
gave them this name (Deut. ii. 10, 11). Of Shaveh Kiriathaim, the 
plain of the two cities, the name probably remains in el-Kureiyat, a 
site near Jebel Attarus in Moab. 

The Horites were perhaps a Shemite tribe, the aboriginal inhabitants 
of Mount Seir, where they dwelt in caves ; such as are still to be seen 
in Petra and other places around. They were afterwards absorbed 
into the Edomites. Mount Seir stretches between the Salt Sea and 
tha Elanitic Gulf. El-Paran, terebinth of Paran, is perhaps the same 
as Elath, at the head of the gulf of Aelana or Akaba. Paran lay west 
of Mount Seir and south of Palestine, and stretched into the peninsula 
of Sinai, where the name may yet be preserved in Wady Feiran. El- 
Paran would thus be by the wilderness of that name, now et-Tih. 

7. This was the extreme point of their march southward. They 
now turned back by another route. Enmishpat, which is Kadesh, lay 
between Mount Hor and the Salt Sea, at a site now called Ain el- 
Weibeh. The field of the Amalehite was some part of the country 



284 ABRAM RESCUES LOT. 

lying between Palestine and Egypt, which was afterwards occupied 
by the Amalekites. Instead of field, the Septuagint has apxovTas, 
rulers of Amalek ; but this reading is not supported. The tribe is de- 
scended from Amalek, the son of Eliphaz and grandson of Esau (Gen. 
xxxvi. 12). Traces of them are found as far north as Ephraim (Judg. 
v. 14, xii. 15). Balaam calls Amalek the beginning of the nations 
(Num. xxiv. 20) ; but this cannot be understood absolutely, as the 
name does not even occur in the table of nations. It is therefore well 
explained to mean that Amalek was the first that attacked Israel on 
coming out of Egypt. The invading host advance still further, to 
Ilazazon-tamar, cutting of the palm, which is En-gedi (well of the kid, 
2 Chron. xx. 2), situated on the western shore of the Salt Sea, and 
now called Ain Jidy. This was a settlement of the Amorites. 

8-12. We have now arrived again at the point we had reached in 
v. 3. The five kings came out and joined battle with the four in the 
dale of Siddim. This dale abounded in pits of mineral pitch, or asphalt. 
The kings of Sodom and Amorah fled toward these pits, and seem to 
have fallen into them and perished. The others betook themselves to 
the mountain — probably the heights on the east of the dale. 

11. The provisions and other movable property of the vanquished 
are carried away from Sodom and Amorah. For ISb'i goods, the Sep- 
tuagint has here and in the 21st verse r'rrv Ztttto-v, the cavalry. This 
implies the reading 35*1, which is not supported by other authorities, 
nor suitable to the context. Among the prisoners is Lot, the son of 
Abram's brother. This designation prepares us for what is to follow. 
It is added that he was dwelling in Sodom, to explain why he was 
among the captives. They went away. The invaders were now laden 
with booty. Their first concern was to transfer this to their native 
country, and deposit it in a place of safety. It was not prudent to 
delay while they were encumbered with so much valuable property. 
The terms on which the conquered tribes were to " serve " them could 
be settled by negotiation. If these terms were not accepted, they would 
be quite ready for another predatory incursion. 

This great foray is only incidentally introduced into our narrative, 
on account of the capture of Lot. It was not the first visit probably 
of these marauders to the same lands. It is interesting to the historian, 
as a sample of the mode in which conquest was made. It opens up to 
the view one of the ancient scenes of human activity. It teaches us 
that the wave of war often flowed over the lands of the ancient world, 
and left more or less lasting marks of its disturbing power. Tribes 



GEN. XIV. 285 

were not unfrequently moved from place to place, intermingled with 
one another, and enslaved by other tribes. The actual state of things 
in the land of Abram's pilgrimage is suddenly presented to us under a 
new light. The Rephairn, including the Zuzim and the Emim, occupy 
the east of the Jordan, and had once a place on the west. The Periz- 
zites also dwell side by side with the Kenaanites in the western 
district. The Horites are found in Mount Seir. As none of these 
were Kenaan's descendants, we have the undeniable traces of a She- 
mitic population before and along with the Kenaanites. The language 
of Ileber, therefore, was in the country before the latter arrived. 

13-16. Abram rescues Lot. o^Bti "the fugitive" party, as "the 
Kenaanite " for the whole nation. The escaped party inform Abram 
when one of their number does so. The Hebrew. This designation 
is given to Abram plainly for the purpose of connecting him with Lot. 
The Septuagint translates the word by Treparrjs, one who passes. 
This has been explained by transfluvialis, one who has come across 
the river ; namely, the Frat. This no doubt applies to Lot as well as 
Abram ; but it also applies to every other tribe in the country, inas- 
much as all had originally migrated across the Euphrates. Besides, 
the word is nowhere else used in this sense, but always as a patro* 
nymic. And moreover Abram is here distinguished as the Hebrew, 
just as his confederate Mamre is distinguished as the Amorite. The 
object of these designations is to mark, not only their relation to each 
other, but also their connection with those who were carried off as 
prisoners of war. The term Hebrew does not come into the narrative 
by hap-hazard. " The sons of Heber " are distinctly mentioned in the 
table of nations among the descendants of Shem. Its introduction 
here intimates that there were other descendants of Ileber besides 
Abram already in the land. They could not but be a widespread 
race. One branch of them, the Joctanites, were the first stock of 
Arabia's inhabitants, and the Palgites may have been the earliest 
settlers in the adjacent Palestine. How many of the non-Kcnaanites 
belong to them we cannot tell ; but we learn from the statement now 
before us that the Hebrew was at this time a known patronymic. The 
way between Mesopotamia and Palestine has been often trodden. 

Abram was dwelling by the oaks of Mamre, near Hebron, and 
therefore not far from the scene of war. He was also in league with 
Mamre and his brothers Eshkol and Aner. This league was, it is 
evident from the result, for mutual defence. 

14. His brother. This is a customary extension of the term, whether 



2S6 ABEAM RESCUES LOT. 

we regard Lot as his brother's son, or at the same time his brother-in- 
law. His trained men. Abram had now a company of three hundred 
and eighteen trained men, bom in his own house ; which implies a 
following of more than one thousand men, women, and children. His 
flocks and herds must have corresponded in extent to such an estab- 
lishment. Unto Dan. This name is found in the Hebrew, Samaritan, 
Septuagint, and Onkelos. It might naturally be supposed that the 
sacred reviser of the text had inserted it here, had we not grounds for 
a contrary supposition. The custom of the reviser was to add the 
other name without altering the original ; of which we have several 
examples in this very chapter (v. 2, 3, 7, 8, 17). We are, therefore, 
led to regard Dan as in use at the time of Abram. Held at that 
remote period perhaps by some Hebrew, it fell at length into the hands 
of the Sidonians (Judg. xviii.), who named it Laish (lion) and Leshem 
(ligure). Names of places in that eastern land vary, from a slight 
resemblance in sound (paronomasia), a resemblance in sense (syno- 
nyms), a change of masters, or some other cause. Laish and Leshem 
are significant names, partly alike in sound, and applied to the same 
town. They took the place of Dan when the town changed masters. 
The recollection of its ancient name and story may have attracted the 
Danites to the place, who burned Laish and built a new city which they 
again called Dan. This town was situated at the source of the lesser 
Jordan, with which some have connected its name. Its site is now 
occupied by Tell el-Kady, the hill of the judge. This is a case of 
resemblance in sense between varying names. Others, however, dis- 
tinguish the present Dan from the Laish Dan, and identify it with 
Danjaan or jaar, " Dan in the wood " (2 Sam. xxiv. 6). The former 
is not on the road to Damascus, while the latter was north of Gilead, 
and may have been near the route either by the south of the sea of 
Kinnereth, or of the waters of Merom. This is possible, and deserves 
consideration. But there may have been a third way to Damascus, 
passing Tell el-Kady ; this place itself is on the east side of the main 
stream of the Jordan, and the expression )3* rtt'n is confessedly obscure. 
15, 16. Abram and his confederates found the enemy secure and at 
their ease, not expecting pursuit. They attack them on two quarters ; 
Abram, probably, on the one, and his allies on the other, by night, 
discomfit and pursue them unto Hobah. On the left hand of Damascus. 
Hobah was on the north of Damascus. An Eastern, in fixing the points 
of the heavens, faces the rising sun, in which position the east is before 
him, the west behind, the south at the right hand, and the north at the 



GEN. XIV. 287 

left. Hobah is referred by the Jews to Jobar, a place northeast of 
Damascus. J. L. Porter suggests a place due north, called Burzeh, 
where there is a Moslem wely or saint's tomb, called Makam Ibrahim, 
the sanctuary of Abraham (Handb. p. 492). This route, by the north 
of Damascus, illustrates the necessity of advancing far north to get 
round the desert intervening between Shinar and the cities of the plain. 

Damascus, Dimishk, esh-Sham, is a very ancient city of Aram. 
The choice of the site was probably determined by the Abana (Barada) 
and Pharpar (Awaj), flowing, the one from Anti-Li banus, and the other 
from Mount Hermon, and fertilizing a circuit of thirty miles. Within 
this area arose a city which, amidst all the changes of dynasty that 
have come over it, has maintained its prosperity to the present day, 
when it has one hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants. It was orig- 
inally occupied by the descendants of Aram, and may have been built, 
as Josephus informs us, by Uz his son. 

Abram, with his allies, succeeded in defeating the enemy and 
recovering the property, with the prisoners, male and female, that had 
been carried away, and, among the rest, Lot, the object of his generous 
and gallant adventure. 

17-24 Abram's reception on his return. The Icing of Sodom. 
This is either Bera, if he survived the defeat, or, if not, his successor. 
The dale of Shaveh, which is the King's dale. The word pE2> is here 
rendered uniformly by the familiar term dale. The dale of Shaveh is 
here explained by the King's dale. This phrase occurs at a period 
long subsequent as the name of the valley in which Absalom reared 
his pillar (2 Sam. xviii. 18). There is nothing to hinder the identity 
of the place, which must, according to the latter passage, have been 
not far from Jerusalem. Josephus makes the distance two stadia, 
which accords with the situation of Absalom's tomb, though the build- 
ing now so-called, in the valley of Jehoshaphat, seems to be of later 
origin. The identity of the King's dale with the valley east of Jerusa- 
lem, through which the Kedron flows, corresponds very well with the 
present passage. 

18-20. An incident of the deepest interest here takes us by surprise. 
The connecting link in the narrative is obviously the place where the 
king of Sodom meets with Abram. The King's dale is plainly adjacent 
to the royal residence of Melkizedec, who therefore comes forth to 
greet and entertain the returning victor. This prince is the king of 
Shalem. This is apparently an ancient name of Jerusalem, which is 
so designated in Ps. lxxvi. 8. The other Shalem, which lay in the 



288 ABEAM KESCUES LOT. 

vicinity of Sliekem (Gen. xxxiii. 18, if this be a proper name) is far 
away from the King's dale and the town of Sodom. Jerusalem is 
convenient to these localities, and contains the element Shalem in its 
composition, as the name signifies the foundation of peace (Shalem). 

The king of Shalem, by name king of righteousness, and by office 
king of peace, brought forth bread and wine. These are the standing 
elements of a simple repast for the refreshment of the body. In after 
times they were by divine appointment placed on the table of the pres- 
ence in the tabernacle (Ex. xxv. 29, 30). They were the accompani- 
ments of the Paschal lamb (Matt. xxvi. 26, 27), and they were adopted 
by the Messiah as the sacred symbols of that heavenly fare, of which, 
if a man partake, he shall live forever (John vi. 48-58). The Au- 
thor of revelation has made all nature intrinsically good and pure. 
He has realized therein a harmony of the laws of intelligence and de- 
sign ; everything meets and matches all that comes into contact with 
it ; and all together form a cosmos, a system of things, a unity of types 
and antitypes. His word cannot but correspond to his work. Bread 
and wine are common things, familiar to the eye, the touch, and the 
taste of men. The great Teacher takes them up out of the hands of 
man as emblems of grace, mercy, and peace, through an accepted 
ransom, of the lowliest as well as the loftiest boon of an everlasting 
salvation, and they have never lost their significance or appropriate- 
ness. 

And he was priest to the most high God. From this we are assured 
that the bread and wine refreshed not only the body, but the soul of 
Abram. In close connection with the preceding sentence, it seems to 
intimate that the bringing forth of bread and wine was a priestly act, 
and, accordingly, the crowning part of a sacred feast. The kohen, or 
priest, who is here mentioned for the first time in Scripture, was one 
who acted in sacred things on the part of others. He was a mediator 
between God and man, representing God holding out the hand of 
mercy, and man reaching forth the hand of faith. The necessity of 
such an office grew out of the distance between God and man pro- 
duced by sin. The business of the priest was to offer sacrifice and to 
intercede ; in the former making amends to the law, in the latter ap- 
pealing to the mercy of God. We do not learn by express statement 
what was the mode of intervention on the part of Melkizedec. But 
we know that sacrifice was as early as Habel, and that calling on the 
name of the Lord was commenced in the time of Enosh. These were 
early forms of approach to God. The offices of king and priest were 



GEN. XIV. 289 

combined in Melkizedec — a condition of things often exemplified in 
after times. 

The most high God. Here we meet with a new name of God, E% 
the Lasting, the Mighty, cognate with Elohim, and previously occur- 
ring in the compound proper names Mehujael, Mahalalel, and Bethel. 
We have also an epithet of God, Elion the most high, now appearing 
for the first time. Hence we perceive that the unity, the omnipotence, 
and the absolute preeminence of God were still living in the memory 
and conscience of a section at least of the inhabitants of this land. 
Still more, the worship of God was not a mere domestic custom, in 
which the father or head of the family officiated, but a public ordinance 
conducted by a stated functionary. And, lastly, the mode of worship 
was of such a nature as to represent the doctrine and acknowledge the 
necessity of an atonement, since it was performed by means of a priest. 

18. And he blessed him. Here it comes out clearly that Melkizedec 
acts not only in a civil but in a sacred capacity. He blesses Abram. 
In the form of benediction employed we have two parts : the former 
of which is strictly a blessing or asking of good things for the person 
in question. Blessed be Abram. It is the part of the father to bless 
the child, of the patriarch or superior to bless the subject or inferior, 
and of the priest to bless the people (Heb. vii. 7). Here, accordingly, 
Melkizedec assumes and Abram concedes to him the superiority. The 
most high God is here further designated as the Founder of heaven 
and earth, the great Architect or Builder, and, therefore, Possessor of 
all things. There is here no indistinct allusion to the creation of 
" heaven and earth," mentioned in the opening of the Book of God. 
This is a manifest identification of the God of Melkizedec with the one 
Creator and Upholder of all things. "We have here no mere local or 
national deity, with limited power and province, but the sole and su- 
preme God of the universe and of man. 

20. The second part of this benedictory prayer is a thanksgiving to 
the common God of Melkizedec and Abram for the victory which had 
been vouchsafed to the latter. Thy foes. Here Abram is personally 
addressed. Melkizedec as a priest first appeals to God on behalf of 
Abram, and then addresses Abram on behalf of God. He thus per- 
forms the part of a mediator. 

And he gave him a tithe of all. This is a very significant act. In 
presenting the tenth of all the spoils of victory, Abram makes a prac- 
tical acknowledgment of the absolute and exclusive supremacy of the 
God whom Melkizedec worshipped, and of the authority and validity 
37 



290 ABRAM RESCUES LOT. 

of the priesthood which he exercised. We have here all the indica- 
tions of a stated order of sacred rites, in which a costly service, with a 
fixed official, is maintained at the public expense, according to a def- 
inite rate of contribution. The gift in the present case is the tenth of 
the spoils of war. This act of Abram, though recorded last, may have 
taken place at the commencement of the interview. At all events, it 
renders it extremely probable that a sacrifice had been offered to God, 
through the intervention of Melkizedec, before he brought forth the 
bread and wine of the accepted feast. 

It is obvious that here we stand on broader ground than the special 
promise made to Abram. Melkizedec was not a partner in the call 
of Abram, and yet the latter acknowledges him as a priest of the most 
high God. Hence we must fall back on the covenant made with 
Noah, — the representative of the whole race after the deluge,. — as the 
broad basis of authority on which Melkizedec acted. That covenant, 
then, was not a dead letter. It still lived in the heart and will of a 
part of the nations. Its hallowing and exalting truths had produced 
at least one centre of pure and spiritual worship on the earth. Even 
Abram, the called of God, acknowledges its constituted head. And 
the most high God, Founder and Upholder of heaven and earth, 
thereby guarantees its validity for all who in every place call on his 
name in sincerity and truth. And his special call to Abram is given 
with a view to the final removal of all obstacles to the acceptance and 
application of this his everlasting covenant. We are thankful for this 
glimpse into the comprehensive grandeur of the divine purpose con- 
cerning man, which is for some time forward cast into the shade, until 
it begins to break forth again in the anticipations of the prophets, and 
at length shines forth with imperishable splendor in the revelations of 
the New Testament. 

The genealogy of Melkizedec seems designedly veiled in impene- 
trable obscurity. To lift this veil entirely is therefore hopeless. Yet 
we may venture to hint the possibility that here we have another 
Shemite chieftain in. the land of Kenaan. The indefinite statement of 
Josephus, that he was a potentate of the Kenaanites, is no proof to the 
contrary, even if it were of much value. The address of Ezekiel to 
Jerusalem : " Thy origin and thy birth are of the land of Kenaan ; thy 
father was an Amorite, and thy mother a Hittite " (xvi. 3), may refer 
to the period immediately before the entrance of Israel into the land. 
At and after that time the Amorite and the Jebusite seem to have 
been in possession of the city (Jos. x. o; Judg. i. 21). But in the 



GEN. XIV. • 291 

time of Abram, more than four hundred years before, it may have 
been different. We have discovered other tribes in this land that 
were not of the race of Kenaan. It is not likely that Kenaan would 
furnish a priest of the most high God. It is evident that Melkizedec 
was not in the confederacy of the Pentapolis with the king of Sodom. 
He comes out separately and suddenly to meet Abram, who was one 
of " the children of Heber," of whom Shem was the father. And he 
is the acknowledged head of the worshippers of the most high God, 
who is "the Lord, the God of Shem." But be this as it may, it is only 
a secondary question here. The matter of primary importance, as has 
been already noted, is the existence of a community of pure worship- 
pers of the true God in the land of Kenaan, antecedent to Abram. 
If this community be descendants of Kenaan, it only renders the dis- 
covery the more striking and impressive. The knowledge of the true 
God, the confession of the one everlasting supreme Creator of heaven 
and earth, the existence of a stated form of worship by means of a 
priest and a ritual attested by Abram the elect of God, in a community 
belonging to the Gentiles, form at once a remarkable vindication of the 
justice and mercy of God in having made known to all mankind the 
mode of acceptable approach to himself, and a singular evidence that 
such a revelation had been made to Noah, from whom alone it could 
have descended to the whole race, and consequently to this particular 
branch of it. "We have reason to believe that this was not the sole 
line in which this precious tradition was still preserved in comparative 
purity and power. Job and his companions belong to one other known 
line in which the knowledge of the one God was still vital. The fun- 
damental principles of divine truth planted in the human breast by this 
and antecedent revelations were never afterwards wholly eradicated ; 
and from the hereditary germs of a primitive theology, cherished by 
intercourse with the Sidonians and other Phoenicians, were Homer, 
Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and other sages of the East and West, enabled 
to rise to the exalted conceptions which they occasionally formed of 
the unity, purity, spirituality, and supremacy of the Divine Being. 
The idea of God, conveyed into a soul of any power and freedom, is 
wonderfully prolific. It bursts the bonds of the animal nature, and 
expands and elevates the rational to some shadowy semblance of its 
primeval glory. Where it has become altogether extinct, the human 
has sunk down under the debasing bondage of the brutal. During the 
four centuries that elapsed from the arrival of Abram to the conquest of 
the country by his descendants, this interesting relic of a pure Gentile 



292 ABEAM RESCUES LOT. 

worship seems to have disappeared. But the traces of such a purify- 
ing and elevating knowledge of God were not even then effaced from 
the memories, the customs, and the phrases of the people. 

21-24. The king of Sodom concedes to Abram, according to custom, 
the spoils of conquest as his right, and claims for himself only his sub- 
jects who had been rescued from the foe. Abram however declines 
any personal advantage from the enterprise, or material recompense 
for his services. To this he was led partly by the present disposition 
of his mind, in which the spiritual prevailed over the carnal, and partly 
by the character of him with whom he had to deal ; as the Sodomites 
were notorious for their wickedness. On other occasions he accepted 
unmerited gifts (Gen. xii. 16, xx. 14, 16). On the present occasion 
he no doubt felt himself amply rewarded by the recovery of his 
kinsman, and the blessing of Melkizedec. Disinterestedness has had 
another victory in Abram. And accordingly the minister of God meets 
him on the field of a common humanity, and pronounces on him a 
blessing. The unselfish, unsectarian heart of the heir of special prom- 
ise, bows in acknowledgment of the representative of the universal and 
anterior covenant of God with Noah. 

22. I have lifted up my hand. This is a serious matter with Abram. 
Either before, or then and there, he made an oath or solemn assev- 
eration before God, with uplifted hand, that he would not touch the 
property of Sodom. He must have felt there was danger of moral 
contamination in coming into any political relationship with the cities 
of the vale. The Lord, the most high God, the Founder of heaven and 
earth. In this conjunction of names Abram solemnly and expressly 
identifies the God of himself and of Melkizedec in the presence of the 
king of Sodom. The most high God of Melkizedec is the God of 
the first chapter of Genesis, and the Jehovah of Adam, Noah, and 
Abram. 

24. While Abram refrains from accepting any part of the spoils 
beyond what had been consumed in supplying the necessities of his fol- 
lowers in the expedition, he expressly excepts the portion to which his 
confederates, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre, became entitled by their share 
in the recovery of the property. This is sufficient to prove that the 
transaction regarding the spoil was not an offer of generosity on the 
part of the king of Sodom, but an act of disinterestedness on the part 
of Abram. 



GEN. XV. 293 



XLI. THE FAITH OF ABEAM.— Gen. xv. 

1. "lift a word, a thing ; the word being the sign of the thing. 

2. W Adonai, the Lord; r. bring down, lay down. This is the 
name usually read in place of Jehovah ; but when as in the present 
case Jehovah and Adonai are in apposition, Elohim is read instead of 
the former. The Jews from a feeling of reverence avoided the utter- 
ance of this sacred name except on the most solemn occasions. This 
is said to have arisen from a stringent interpretation of Lev. xxiv. 1 6. 
According to some, this name was pronounced only once a year by the 
high priest, on the day of atonement, in the Holy of Holies, and accord- 
ing to others only in the solemn benedictions pronounced by the priests. 
At an earlier period, however, the name must have been freely used 
by the people, as it enters into the composition of proper names. 
Adon in the singular and plural is used as a common name. puq 
joossession, p'^"]3 possessor. This forms a paronomasia with ptyisft , 
which is for *j?to§5|. ^15 > 4^ Eliezer, God of help, or mighty to help. 

19. h pJ5 Kenite, patronymic of ^g Kain. *kyp Kenizzite, patr. of 
T2p Kenaz, hunter, ^tft^ Kadmonite, eastern, old. 

XV. 1. After these things came the word of the Lord unto 
Abram in a vision ; saying, Fear not, Abram : I am thy shield, 
thy exceeding great reward. 2. And Abram said, Lord Jeho- 
vah, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the 
possessor of my house is Eliezer of Damascus ? 3. And Abram 
said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed ; and, behold, a 
son of my house is mine heir. 4. And, behold, the word of 
the Lord came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir ; 
but he that shall come out of thine own bowels shall be thine 
heir. 5. And he brought him forth abroad and said, Look 
now towards heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to tell 
them. And he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. 6. And 
he believed in the Lord ; and he counted to him for righteous- 
ness. 

7. And he said unto him, I am the Lord, that brought thee 
out of Ur of the Kasdim, to give thee this land to possess it. 



294 THE FAITH OF ABEAM. 

8. And he said, Lord Jehovah, whereby shall I know that I 
shall possess it ? 9. And he said unto him, Take me a heifer 
three years old, and a she-goat three years old, and a ram 
three years old, and a turtle dove, and a young pigaon. 10. 
And he took him all these, and divided them in the midst, and 
laid each piece one against another ; but the birds divided he 
not. 11. And the birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, 
and Abram drove them away. 12. And the sun was about to 
set, and a trance fell upon Abram ; and, lo, a horror, a great 
darkness, fell upon him. 13. And he said unto Abram, Know, 
know thou, that thy seed shall be strangers in a land that is 
not theirs, and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them 
four hundred years. 14. And also the nation whom they shall 
serve will I judge ; and afterward shall they come out with 
great wealth. 15. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace ; 
thou shalt be buried in a happy old age. 16. And in the 
fourth age shall they return hither ; for the iniquity of the 
Amorite is not yet full. 17. And the sun went down, and 
deep darkness was come on, and, behold, a smoking oven and 
a burning lamp that passed between those pieces. 

18. In that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, 
saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river 
of Mizraim unto the great river, the river Phrat : 19. The 
Kenite and Kenizzite and the Kadmonite, 20. And the 
Hittite and the Perizzite and the Kephaim, 21. And the 
Amorite and the Kenaanite and the Girgashite and the 
Jebusite. § 28. 

The events recorded in the preceding chapter manifest the sway 
of the new nature in Abram, and meet the approval of the Lord. 
This approval is exhibited in a heavenly visit to the patriarch, in 
which the Lord solemnly reiterates the promise of the seed and the 
land. Abram believes in the Lord, who thereupon enters into cove- 
nant with him. • 

1-6. After these things, — the victory, the blessing, and the self-denial 
recorded in the previous chapter. The word of the Lord, manifesting 



GEN. XV. 295 

himself by speech to nis servant. In the vision the intelligent observer 
passes from the merely sensible to the supersensible sphere of reality. 
Fear not, Abram. The patriarch had some reason to fear. The for- 
midable allies had indeed been discomfited, and the fruits of their 
marauding enterprise wrested from them. But they might resume 
their purpose, and return with an overwhelming force. And Abram 
was still a stranger in a foreign land, preoccupied by tribes of another 
race, who would combine against him as soon as they suspected him 
of being an intruder. But the Lord had stood by him and given him 
the victory, and now speaks to him in the language of encouragement. 
I am thy shield, thy exceeding great reward. The word /is separately 
expressed, and, therefore, emphatic in the original. I, Jehovah, the 
Self-existent, the Author of existence, the Performer of promise, the 
Manifester of myself to man, and not any creature however exalted. 
This was something beyond a seed, or a land, or any temporal thing. 
The Creator infinitely transcends the creature. The mind of Abram 
is here lifted up to the spiritual and the eternal. 1. Thy shield. 
2. Thy exceeding great reward. Abram has two fears, — the presence 
of evil, and the absence of good. Experience and conscience had begun 
to teach him that both of these were justly his doom. But Jehovah 
has chosen him, and here engages himself to stand between him and 
all harm, and himself to be to him all good. With such a shield from 
all evil, and such a source of all good, he need not be afraid. The 
Lord, we see, begins, as usual, with the immediate and the tangible ; 
but he propounds a principle that reaches to the eternal and the spirit- 
ual. We have here the opening germ of the great doctrine of " the 
Lord our righteousness," redeeming us on the one hand from the sen- 
tence of death, and on the other to a title to eternal life. 

2, 3. Notwithstanding the unbounded grandeur and preciousness of 
the promise, or rather assurance, now given, Abram is still childless 
and landless ; and the Lord has made as yet no sign of action in re- 
gard to these objects of special promise. Lord Jehovah. The name 
Adonai is here for the first time used in the divine records. It denotes 
one who has authority ; and, therefore, when applied to God, the 
Supreme Lord. Abram hereby acknowledges Jehovah as Supreme 
Judge and Governor, and therefore entitled to dispose of all matters 
concerning his present or prospective welfare. What wilt thou give 
me ?■ Of what use will land or wealth be to me, the immediate reward 
specified by the promise ? Eliezer of Damascus is master of my house. 
To me thou hast given no seed. This was the present shield mentioned 



296 THE FAITH OF ABEAM. 

also in former words of promise. There is something strikingly human 
in all this. Abram is no enthusiast or fanatic. He fastens on the 
substantive blessings which the Lord had expressly named. 

4, 5. The Lord reiterates the promise concerning the seed. As he 
had commanded him to view the land, and see in its dust the emblem 
of the multitude that would spring from him, so now, with a sublime 
simplicity of practical illustration, he brings him forth to contemplate 
the stars, and challenges him to tell their number, if he can ; adding, 
So shall thy seed be. He that made all these out of nothing, by the 
word of his power, is able to fulfil his promise, and multiply the seed 
of Abram and Sarai. Here, we perceive, the vision does not interfere 
with the notice of the sensible world, so far as is necessary (Dan. x. 7 ; 
John xii. 29). 

G. And Abram believed in the Lord. Thus, at length, after many 
throes of labor, has come to the birth in the breast of Abram faith in 
Jehovah, on his simple promise in the absence of all present perform- 
ance, and in the face of all sensible hinderance. The command to go 
to the land which the Lord would show him, accompanied with the 
promise to make of him a great nation, had awakened in him a certain 
expectation ; which, however, waited for some performance to ripen it 
into faith. But waiting in a state of suspense is not faith, but doubt ; 
and faith after performance is not faith, but sight. The second and 
third renewal of the promise, while performance was still unseen in 
the distance, was calculated to slay the expectancy that still paused 
for realization, to give it the vitality of a settled consent and acquies- 
cence in the faithfulness of God, and mature it into conviction and 
confession. 

What was there now, then, to call forth Abram's faith more than at 
the first promise ? There was the reiteration of the promise. There 
was the withholding of the performance, leaving room for the exercise 
of pure faith. There was time to train the mind to this unwonted idea 
and determination. And, lastly, there was the sublime assurance con- 
veyed in the sentence, " / am thy shield, thy exceeding great re- 
ward," transcending all the limits of time and place, comprehending 
alike the present and the eternal, the earthly and the heavenly. This, 
coupled with all the recorded and unrecorded dealings of the Lord, 
leads him to conceive the nobler feeling of faith in the Promiser, an- 
tecedent to any part of the execution, any unfolding of the plan, or 
any removal of the obvious difficulty. The moment of deliverance 
draws nigh, when Abram at length ventures to open his mouth and 



GEN. XV. 297 

lay bare, in articulate utterance, the utmost questionings of his soul 
before the Lord. And then, in due time, is effected the birth of faith ; 
not by commencing the accomplishment of the promise, but by the 
explicit reassertion of its several parts, in the light of that grand as- 
surance which covers it in its narrowest and in its most expanded 
forms. Thus faith springs solely from the seed of promise. And from 
that moment there stands up and grows within the breast of man the 
right frame of mind towards the God of mercy, — the germ of a mutual 
good understanding between God and man which will spread its roots 
and branches through the whole soul, to the exclusion of every noxious 
plant, and blossom forth unto the blessed fruit of all holy feelings and 
doings. 

And he counted it to him for righteousness. 1st. From this confessedly 
weighty sentence we learn, implicitly, that Abram had no righteous- 
ness. And if he had not, no man had. We have seen enough of 
Abram to know this on other grounds. And here the universal fact 
of man's depravity comes out into incidental notice, as a thing usually 
taken for granted, in the words of God. 2d. Righteousness is here 
imputed to Abram. Hence mercy and grace are extended to him; 
mercy taking effect in the pardon of his sin, and grace in bestowing 
the rewards of righteousness. 3d. That in him which is counted for 
righteousness is faith in Jehovah promising mercy. In the absence of 
righteousness, tins is the only thing in the sinner that can be counted 
for righteousness. First, it is not of the nature of righteousness. If 
it were actual righteousness, it could not be counted as such. But 
believing God, who promises blessing to the undeserving, is essentially 
different from obeying God, who guarantees blessing to the deserving. 
Hence it has a negative fitness to be counted for what it is not. Sec- 
ondly, it is trust in him who engages to bless in a holy and lawful way. 
Hence it is that in the sinner which brings him into conformity with 
the law through another who undertakes to satisfy its demands and 
secure its rewards for him. Thus it is the only thing in the sinner 
which, while it is not righteousness, has yet a claim to be counted for 
such, because it brings him into union with one who is just and having 
salvation. 

It is not material what the Almighty and All-gracious promises in 
the first instance to him that believes in him, whether it be a land, or 
a seed, or any other blessing. All other blessing, temporal or eternal, 
will flow out of that express one, in a perpetual course of development, 
as the believer advances in experience, in compass of intellect, and 
38 



208 THE FAITH OF ABRAM. 

capacity of enjoyment. Hence it is that a land involves a better land, 
a seed a nobler seed, a temporal an eternal good. The patriarchs 
were children to us in the comprehension of the love of God : we are 
children to those who will hereafter experience still grander manifesta- 
tions of what God has prepared for them that love him. The shield 
and exceeding great reward await a yet inconceivable enlargement of 
meaning. 

7-21. The Lord next confirms and explains the promise of the land 
to Abram. When God announces himself as Jehovah, who purposed 
to give him the land, Abram asks, "Whereby shall I know that I shall 
possess it ? He appears to expect some intimation as to the time and 
mode of entering upon possession. 9, 10. The Lord now directs him 
to make ready the things requisite for entering into a formal covenant 
regarding the land. These include all the kinds of animals afterwards 
used in sacrifice. The number three is sacred, and denotes the perfec- 
tion of the victim in point of maturity. The division of the animals 
refers to the covenant between two parties, who participate in the 
rights which it guarantees. The birds are two without being divided. 
11. Abram drove them away. As the animals slain and divided rep- 
resent the only mean and way through which the two parties can meet 
in a covenant of peace, they must be preserved pure and unmutilated 
for the end they have to serve. 

12-17. And the sun was about to set. This visit of the Lord to 
Abram continues for two nights, with the intervening day. In the 
former night he led him forth to view the stars (v. 5). The second 
night sets in with the consummation of the covenant (v. 17). The 
revelation comes to Abram in a trance of deep sleep. The Lord 
releases the mind from attention to the communications of sense in 
order to engage it with higher things. And he who makes the loftier 
revelation can enable the recipient to distinguish the voice of heaven 
from the play of fancy. 

13-15. Know, know thou. Know certainly. This responds to 
Abram's question, "Whereby shall I know ? (v. 8). Four hundred years 
are to elapse before the seed of Abram shall actually proceed to take 
possession of the land. This interval can only commence when the 
seed is born ; that is, at the birth of Isaac, when Abram was a hundred 
years of age, and therefore thirty years after the call. During this 
interval they are to be, first, strangers in a land not theirs for one 
hundred and ninety years ; and then for the remaining two hundred 
and ten years in Egypt : at first, servants, with considerable privilege 



GEK XV. 299 

and position ; and at last, afflicted serfs, under a hard and cruel bondage. 
14. At the end of this period Pharoh and his nation were visited with 
a succession of tremendous judgments, and Israel went out free from 
bondage with great wealth (Ex. xii.-xiv.). 15. Go to thy fathers. 
This implies that the fathers, though dead, still exist. To go from one 
place to another implies, not annihilation, but the continuance of exist- 
ence. The doctrine of the soul's perpetual existence is here intimated. 
Abram died in peace and happiness, one hundred and fifteen years 
before the descent into Egypt. 

16. In the fourth age. An age here means the average period from 
the birth to the death of one man. This use of the word is proved by 
Numb, xxxii. 13, — " He made them wander in the wilderness forty 
years, until all the generation that had done evil in the sight of the 
Lord was consumed." This age or generation ran parallel with the 
life of Moses, and therefore consisted of one hundred and twenty years. 
Joseph lived one hundred and ten years. Four such generations 
amount to four hundred and eighty or four hundred and forty years. 
From the birth of Isaac to the return to the land of promise was an 
interval of four hundred and forty years. Isaac, Levi, Amram, and 
Eleazar may represent the four ages. 

For the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full. From this simple 
sentence we have much to learn. 1st. The Lord foreknows the moral 
character of men. 2d. In his providence he administers the affairs 
of nations on the principle of moral rectitude. 3d. Nations are spared 
until their iniquity is full. 4th. They are then cut off in retributive 
justice. 5th. The Amorite was to be the chief nation extirpated for 
its iniquity on the return of the seed of Abram. Accordingly we find 
the Amorites occupying by conquest the country east of the Jordan, 
from the Arnon to Mount Hermon, under their two kings Sihon and Og 
(Num. xxi. 21-35). On the west of Jordan we have already met 
them at En-gedi and Hebron, and they dwelt in the mountains of Judah 
and Ephraim (Num. xiii. 29), whence they seem to have crossed the 
Jordan for conquest (Num. xxi. 26). Thus had they of all the tribes 
that overspread the land by far the largest extent of territory. And 
they seem to have been extinguished as a nation by the invasion of 
Israel, as we hear no more of them in the subsequent history of the 
country. 

17. And the sun went down. The light of day is gone. The cove- 
nant is now formally concluded. Abram had risen to the height of 
faith in the God of promise. He is come into the position of the 



300 THE FAITH OF ABRAM. 

father of the faithful. He is therefore qualified for entering into this 
solemn compact. This covenant has a peculiarity which distinguishes 
it from that with Noah. It refers to a patriarch and his seed chosen 
out of a coexisting race. It is not, however, subversive of the ancient 
and general covenant, but only a special measure for overcoming the 
legal and moral difficulties in the way, and ultimately bringing its 
comprehensive provisions into effect. It refers to the land of promise, 
which is not only a reality, but a type and an earnest of all analogous 
blessings. 

The oven of smoke and lamp of flame symbolize the smoke of 
destruction and the light of salvation. Their passing through the 
pieces of the victims and probably consuming them as an accepted 
sacrifice are the ratification of the covenant on the part of God, as the 
dividing and presenting of them were on the part of Abram. The 
propitiatory foundation of the covenant here comes into view, and! 
connects Abram with Habel and Noah, the primeval confessors of the 
necessity of an atonement. 

18-21. In that instant the covenant was solemnly completed. Its 
primary form of benefit is the grant of the promised land with the ex- 
tensive boundaries of the river of Egypt and the Euphrates. The 
former seems to be the Nile with its banks which constitute Egypt, as 
the Phrat with its banks describes the land of the East, with which 
countries the promised land was conterminous, 

19-21. The ten principal nations inhabiting this area are here enu- 
merated. Of these five are Kenaanite, and the other five probably 
not. The first three are new to us, and seem to occupy the extremities 
of the region here defined. The Kenite dwelt in the country border- 
ing on Egypt and south of Palestine, in which the Amalekites also are 
found (Num. xxiv. 20-22 ; 1 Sam, xv. 6). They dwelt among the 
Midianites, as Hobab was both a Midianite and a Kenite (Num. x. 
29 ; Judg. i. 1G, iv. 11). They were friendly to the Israelites, and 
hence some of them followed their fortunes and settled in their land 
(1 Chr. ii. 55). The Kenizzite dwelt apparently in the same region, 
having affinity with the Horites, and subsequently with Edom and 
Israel (Gen. xxxvi. 11, 20-23 ; Jos. xv. 17 ; 1 Chr. ii. 50-52). The 
Kadmonite seems to be the Eastern, and, therefore, to hold the other 
extreme boundary of the promised land, towards Tadmor and the Phrat. 
These three tribes were probably related to Abram, and, therefore, 
descendants of Shem. The other seven tribes have already come 
under our notice. 



GEN. XVI. 301 



XLII. THE BIRTH OF ISHMAEL. — Gen. xvi. 

1. *i5tt Hagar, flight. Hejrah, tlie flight of Mahomet. 

7. Tjfc&a messenger, angel. A deputy commissioned to discharge a 
certain duty for the principal whom he represents. As the most usual 
task is that of bearing messages, commands, or tidings, he is commonly 
called a messenger (ayyeXos). The word is therefore a term of office, 
and does not further distinguish the office-bearer than as an intelligent 
being. Hence a mal'ak may be a man deputed by a man ( Gen. xxxii. 
3 ; Job i. 14), or by God (Hag. i. 13 ; Mai. iii. 1), or a superhuman 
being delegated in this case only by God. The English term angel is 
now specially appropriated to the latter class of messengers. 

1st. The nature of angels is spiritual (Heb. i. 14). This character- 
istic ranges over the whole chain of spiritual being from man up to 
God himself. The extreme links, however, are excluded : man, be- 
cause he is a special class of intelligent creatures ; and God, because 
he is supreme. Other classes of spiritual beings may be excluded, — - as 
the cherubim, the seraphim, — because they have not the same office, 
though the word angelic is sometimes used by us as synonymous with 
heavenly or spiritual. They were all of course originally good ; but 
some of them have fallen from holiness, and become evil spirits or 
devils (Matt. xxv. 31, 41 ; Jude vi. ; liev. xii. 7). The latter are cir- 
cumscribed in their sphere of action, as if confined within the walls of 
their prison, in consequence of their fallen state and malignant disposi- 
tion (Gen. iii. ; Job i. 2 ; 1 Peter ii. 4 ; Rev. xx. 2). Being spiritual, 
they are not only moral, but intelligent. They also excel in strength 
(Ps. ciii. 20). The holy angels have the full range of action for which 
their qualities are adapted. They can assume a real form, expressive 
of their present functions, and affecting the senses of sight, hearing, 
and touch, or the roots of those senses in the soul. They may even 
perform innocent functions of a human body, such as eating (Gen. 
xviii. 8, xix. 3). Being spirits, they can resolve the material food 
into its original elements in a way which we need not attempt to con- 
ceive or describe. But this case of eating stands altogether alone. 
Angels have no distinction of sex (Matt. xxii. 30). They do not grow 
old or die. They are not a race, and have not a body in the ordinary 
sense of the term. 

2d. Their office is expressed by their name. In common with other 
intelligent creatures, they take part in the worship of God (Rev. vii. 
11) ; but their special office is to execute the commands of God in 



302 THE BIRTH OF ISHMAEL. 

the natural world (Ps. ciii. 20), and especially to minister to the heirs 
of salvation (Heb. i. 14; Matt, xviii. 10 ; Luke xv. 10, xvi. 22). It 
is not needful here to enter into the peculiarities of their ministry. 

3d. The angel of Jehovah. This phrase is specially employed to 
denote the Lord himself in that form in which he condescends to make 
himself manifest to man ; for the Lord God says of this angel, " Be- 
ware of him, and obey his voice ; provoke him not, for he will not 
pardon your transgressions ; for my name is in his inmost " (Ex. xxiii. 
21 ) ; that is, my nature is in his essence. Accordingly, he who is called 
the angel of the Lord in one place is otherwise denominated the Lord 
or God in the immediate context (Gen. xvi. 7, 13, xxii. 11, 12, xxxi. 
11, 13, xlviii. 15, 16; Ex. iii. 2-15, xxiii. 20-23 with xxxiii. 14, 
15). It is remarkable, at the same time, that the Lord is spoken of in 
these cases as a distinct person from the angel of the Lord, who is also 
called the Lord. The phraseology intimates to us a certain inherent 
plurality within the essence of the one only God, of which we have 
had previous indications (Gen. i. 26, iii. 22). The phrase angel of 
the Lord, however, indicates a more distant manifestation to man than 
the term Lord itself. It brings the medium of communication into 
greater prominence. It seems to denote some person of the Godhead 
in angelic form. ill!) Shur, wall. A city or place probably near the 
head of the gulf of Suez. The desert of Shur is now Jofar. 

11. ^asai^ Jishm'ael, the Mighty will hear. 

13. "^ bx God of vision or seeing. 

14. ^2p *n\ *)X2 Beer-lachai-roi, well of vision to the living, T^a 
Bered, hail. The site is not known. 

XVI. 1. And Sarai, Abram's wife, bare not to him ; and she 
had a Mizrite handmaid, whose name was Hagar. 2. And Sarai 
said to Abram, Behold now the Lord hath restrained me from 
bearing : go in now unto my maid ; mayhap I shall be builded 
by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai. 3. 
And Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Mizrite, her maid, 
after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Kenaan, and 
gave her to Abram, her husband, to be his wife. 4. And he 
went in unto Hagar, and she conceived ; and she saw that she 
had conceived, and her mistress was despised in her eyes. 5. 
And Sarai said unto Abram, My wrong be upon thee ; I myself 



GEN. XVI. 303 

gave my maid into thy bosom, and she saw that she had con- 
ceived, and I was despised in her eyes ; the Lord judge between 
me and thee. 6. And Abram said unto Sarai, Behold, thy 
maid is in thy hand : do to her that which is good in thine 
eyes. And Sarai humbled her, and she fled from her face. 

7. And the angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water 
in the wilderness, by the spring in the way to Shur. 8. And 
he said, Hagar, Sarai's maid, whence art thou come, and 
whither goest thou? And she said, From the face of Sarai, 
Sarai my mistress, am I fleeing. 9. And the angel of the 
Lord said unto her, Return to thy mistress, and humble thy- 
self under her hands. 10. And the angel of the Lord said 
unto her, Multiply, multiply will I thy seed, and it shall not be 
numbered for multitude. 11. And the angel of the Lord said 
unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son ; 
and thou shalt call his name Ishmael, because the Lord hath 
heard thy humiliation. 12. And he will be a wild man, his 
hand against every man, and every man's hand against him ; 
and in the presence of all his brethren shall he dwell. 

13. And she called the name of the Lord that spake unto 
her, Thou art the God of my vision ; for she said, Have I even 
still seen, after my vision ? 14. Wherefore the well is called 
Beer-lahai-roi : behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered. 15. 
And Hagar bare Abram a son ; and Abram called the name 
of his son, whom Hagar bare, Ishmael. 16. And Abram was 
the son of eighty and six years when Hagar bare Ishmael to 
Abram. * 29. 

Sarah has been barren probably much more than twenty years. She 
appears to have at length reluctantly arrived at the conclusion that she 
would never be a mother. Nature and history prompted the union of 
one man to one wife in marriage, and it might have been presumed 
that God would honor his own institution. But the history of the crea- 
tion of man was forgotten or unheeded, and the custom of the East 
prompted Sarai to resort to the expedient of giving her maid to her 
husband for a second wife, that she might have children by her. 



304 THE BIRTH OF ISHMAEL. 

1-G. A Mizrite handmaid. Hagar was probably obtained, ten years 
before, during their sojourn in Egypt. 2. The Lord hath restrained me. 
It was natural to the ancient mind to recognize the power and will of 
God in all things. I shall be builded by her, H53S*:, built as the founda- 
tion of a house, by the addition of sons or daughters (n^a or rviaa). 
She thought she had or wished to have a share in the promise, if not 
by herself personally, yet through her maid. The faith of Sarah had 
not yet come fully to the birth. Abram yields to the suggestion of his 
wife, and complies with the custom of the country. 3. Ten years had 
elapsed since they had entered the land they were to inherit. Impa- 
tience at the long delay leads to an invention of their own for obtaining 
an heir. 4-6. The contempt of her maid was unjustifiable. But it 
was the natural consequence of Sarai's own improper and imprudent 
step, in giving her to her husband as a concubine. Unwilling, how- 
ever, to see in herself the occasion of her maid's insolence, she transfers 
the blame to her husband, who empowers or reminds her of her power 
still to deal with her as it pleased her. Hagar, unable to bear the 
yoke of humiliation, flees from her mistress. 

7-12. The angel of the Lord either represents the Lord, or presents 
the Lord in angelic form. The Lord manifests himself to Hagar 
seemingly on account of her relationship to Abram, but in the more 
distant form of angelic visitation. She herself appears to be a believer 
in God. The spring of water is a place of refreshment on her journey. 
She is on the way to Shur, which was before Mizraim as thou goest 
towards Asshur (Gen. xxv. 13), and therefore fleeing to Egypt, her 
native land. 8, 9. The angel of the Lord interrogates her, and requires 
her to return to her mistress, and humble herself under her hands. 

10. / will multiply. This language is proper only to the Lord 
himself; for it claims a divine prerogative. The Lord is, therefore, 
in this angel. He promises to Hagar a numerous offspring. 11, 12, 
Ishmael. El, the Mighty, will hear ; but Jehovah, the Lord, heard her 
humiliation. Jehovah, therefore, is the same God as El. He describes 
Ishmael and his progeny in him as resembling the wild ass. This 
animal is a fit symbol of the wild, free, untamable Bedawin of the 
desert. He is to live in contention, and yet to dwell independently, 
among all his brethren. His brethren are the descendants of Heber, 
the Joctanites, composing the thirteen original tribes of the Arabs, and 
the Palgites to whom the descendants of Abram belonged. The Ish- 
maelites constituted the second element of the great Arab nation, and 
shared in their nomadic character and independence. The character 
here given of them is true even to the present day. 



GEN. XVII. 



305 



13-16. God of my vision (El-roi). Here we have the same di- 
vine name as in Ishmael. Have I even still seen — continued to live 
and see the sun after having seen God ? Beer-lahai-roi, the well of 
vision (of God) to the living. To see God and live was an issue con- 
trary to expectation (Ex. xxxiii. 20). The well is between Kadesh 
and Bered. The site of the latter has not been ascertained. R. Jona- 
than gives KS&n the "EXova-a of Ptolemy, now el-Khulasa, about twelve 
miles south of Beersheba. Rowland finds the well at Moyle or Mu- 
weilah, still further south in the same direction. 15, 16. The birth 
of Ishmael is in the sixteenth year after Abram's call, and the eleventh 
after his arrival in Kenaan. 



XLIII. THE SEALING OF THE CO VENANT. — Gen. xvii. 

I. ^"nd Shaddai, Irresistible, able to destroy, and by inference to make, 
Almighty. Tpd be strong, destroy. This name is found six times in 
Genesis, and thirty-one times in Job. 

5. Drr^n^ Abraham, from erax high-father, and ntn the radical part 
of yhatj a multitude, is obtained by a euphonic abbreviation t)!T^x high- 
father of a midtitude. The root d m is a variation of nil ; affording, 
however, a link of connection in sound and sense with the root rraii 

' T T 

hum, be tumultuous, from which comes "p'oii a multitude. The conflu- 
ence of the biliterals d"i and Din yields the triliteral Dill occurring in 
Arabic, though not elsewhere in our written Hebrew. The law of 
formation here noticed is interesting and real, though fiTft may not 
have been an actual result of it. 

II. Eflta formed from bm circumcised. 5>*ra cut, circumcise. 
15. JTnia Sarah, princess. 

19. pftx 1 ; Jitschaq, laughing. 

XVII. 1. And Abram was the son of ninety and nine years, 
and the Lord appeared to Abram and said unto him, I am God 
Almighty: walk before me, and be perfect. 2. And I will 
grant my covenant between me and thee, and multiply thee 
exceedingly. 3. And Abram fell on his face ; and God talked 
with him, saying, 4. As for me, behold, my covenant is with 
39 



306 THE SEALING OF THE COVENANT. 

thee ; and thou shalt be father of many nations. 5. And thy 
name shall no more be called Abram ; but thy name shall be 
Abraham ; for a father of many nations have I made thee. 6. 
And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and make nations of 
thee ; and kings shall come out of thee. 7. And I will estab- 
lish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after 
thee, in their generations, for a perpetual covenant, to be a 
God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. 8. And I will give 
unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land of thy sojourn- 
ings, all the land of Kenaan, for a perpetual possession ; and 
I will be their God. 

9. And God said to Abraham, And thou my covenant shalt 
keep, thou and thy seed after thee in their generations. 10. 
This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and 
you and the seed after thee : that every male of you be circum- 
cised. 11. And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your fore- 
skin ; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and 
you. 12. And the son of eight days shall be circumcised for 
you, every male in your generations ; born in the house, and 
bought with money, of every stranger who is not of thy seed. 
13. Circumcised shall he be that is born in thy house and 
bought with thy money ; and my covenant shall bo in your 
flesh for a perpetual covenant. 14. And the uncircumciscd 
male, the flesh of whose foreskin is not circumcised, that soul 
shall be cut off from his people : my covenant hath he bro- 
ken. § 30. 

15. And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou 
shalt not call her name Sarai ; but Sarah shall be her name. 
16. And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her : and 
I will bless her, and she shall become nations ; kings of peo- 
ples shall be of her. 17. And Abraham fell on his face, and 
laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born to the son 
of a hundred years ? or Sarah — shall the daughter of ninety 
years bear ? 18. And Abraham said unto God, Oh that Ishmael 
might live before thee ! 19. And God said, Certainly Sarah 



GEN. XVII. 307 

thy wife shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name 
Isaac : and I will establish my covenant with him for a per- 
petual covenant for his seed after him. 20. And for Ishmacl 
I have heard thee : behold, I have blessed him, and made him 
fruitful, and multiplied him exceedingly : twelve princes shall 
he beget, and I will make him a great nation. 21. But my 
covenant will I establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear 
unto thee at this season in the next year. 22. And he left off 
talking with him ; and God went up from Abraham. 

23. And Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all that were 
born in his house, and all that were bought with his money, 
every male among the men of Abraham's house, and circum- 
cised the flesh of their foreskin in the self-same day, as God 
had spoken with him. 24. And Abraham was the son of ninety 
and nine years when lie was circumcised in the flesh of his 
foreskin. 25. And Ishmael his son was the son of thirteen 
years when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. 
26. In the self-same day was Abraham circumcised and Ish- 
mael his son. 27. And all the men of his house, born in the 
house, and bought with money of the stranger, were circum- 
cised with him. 4 m 19. 



The present form of the covenant is not identical with the former. 
That referred chiefly to the land ; this chiefly to the seed. That dwelt 
much on temporal things ; this rises to spiritual things. That specifies 
only Abram ; this mentions both Abram and Sarai. At the former pe- 
riod God formally entered into covenant with Abram (fii*ia rvta Gen. xv. 
18) ; at present he takes the first step in the fufilment of the covenant 
(*V*ia "jrs), seals it with a token and a perpetual ordinance, and gives 
Abram and Sarai new names in token of a new nature. There was 
an interval of fourteen years at least between the ratification of the 
covenant and the preparation for the fulfilment of its conditions, during 
which Abraham's faith had time to unfold. 

1-8. The covenant in its spiritual aspect. The Lord, the Author 
of existence and performance. God Almighty, El Shaddai. El, the 
Lasting, Eternal, Absolute. Shaddai, the Irresistible, Unchangeable, 



308 THE SEALING OF THE COVENANT. 

Destructive (Tsa. xiii. 6; Joel i. 15). This term indicates on the one 
hand his judicial, punitive power, and points to his holiness ; and on the 
other hand, his alterative, reconstructive power, and points to his prov- 
idence. The complex name, therefore, describes God as the Holy 
Spirit, who works in the development of things, especially in the pun- 
ishment and eradication of sin and its works, and in the regeneration 
and defence of holiness. It refers to potence, and potence combined 
with promise affords ground for faith. 

Walk before me and be perfect. In the institution of the covenant 
we had "fear not," — an encouragement to the daunted or the doubting. 
In its confirmation we have a command, a rule of life, prescribed. This 
is in keeping with the circumstances of Abraham. For, first, he has 
now faith in the Lord, which is the fruit of the new man in him pre- 
vailing over the old, and is therefore competent to obey ; and, next, the 
Lord in whom he believes is God Almighty, the all-efficient Spirit, 
who worketh both to will and to do in the destroying of sin and build- 
ing up of holiness. Walk, — act in the most comprehensive sense of the 
term ; before me, and not behind, as one conscious of doing what is, 
not displeasing, but pleasing to me ; and be perfect, not sincere merely, 
unless in the primitive sense of duty, but complete, upright, holy, not 
only in walk, which is provided for in the previous clause, but in heart, 
the spring of action. 

2. My covenant, which I have already purposed and formally closed. 
I will grant, carry into effect, the provisions of it. Multiply thee. The 
seed is here identified with the head or parent seat of life. The seed 
now comes forward as the prominent benefit of the covenant. 

3-6. Abram fell on his face. This is the lowliest form of reverence, 
in which the worshipper leans on his knees and elbows, and his forehead 
approaches the ground. Prostration is still customary in the East. 
Abram has attained to loftier notions of God. God talked with him. 
Jehovah, El Shaddai, is here called God. The Supreme appears as 
the Author of existence, the Irresistible and Everlasting, in this stage 
of the covenant relation. 

4. As for me. The one party to the covenant is here made promi- 
nent, as in verse 9 the other party is brought out with like emphasis. 
The exalted Being who has entered into it imparts a grandeur, solem- 
nity, and excellence to the covenant. Father of many nations. The 
promise of seed is here expanded and particularized. A multitude of 
nations and kings are to trace their descent from Abram. This is true 
in a literal sense. The twelve tribes of Israel and many Arab tribes, 



GEN. XVII. 309 

the twelve princes of Ishniael, Keturah's descendants, and the dukes 
of Edom sprang from him. But it is to be more magnificently realized 
in a spiritual sense. Nations is a term usually applied, not to the 
chosen people, but to the other great branches of the human race. 
This points to the original promise, that in him should all the families 
of the earth be blessed. Abraham. The father of many nations is to 
be called by a new name, as he has come to have a new nature, and 
been elevated to a new dignity. The high father has become the 
father of the multitude of the faithful. 

7. Next, the spiritual part of the covenant comes into view. To be 
a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. Here we find God, in the 
progress of human development, for the third time laying the founda- 
tions of a covenant of grace with man. He dealt with Adam and with 
Noah, and now he deals with Abraham. A perpetual covenant. This 
covenant will not fail, since God has originated it, notwithstanding the 
moral instability of man. Though we cannot as yet see the possibility of 
fulfilling the condition on man's side, yet we may be assured that what 
God purposes will somehow be accomplished. The seed of Abraham 
will eventually embrace the whole human family in fellowship with 
God. 

8. Thirdly, the temporal and the spiritual are brought together. 
The land of promise is made sure to the heir of promise, for a perpetual 
possession, and God engages to be their God. The phrase perpetual 
possession has here two elements of meaning, — first, that the possession, 
in its coming form of a certain land, shall last as long as the coexisting 
relations of things are continued ; and, secondly, that the said possession 
in all the variety of its ever grander phases will last absolutely for- 
ever. Each form will be perfectly adequate to each stage of a pro- 
gressive humanity. But in all its forms and at every stage it will be 
their chief glory that God is their God. 

( 9-14. The sign of the covenant. And thou. The other party to 
the covenant now learns his obligation. Every male of you shall be 
circumcised. Circumcision, as the rainbow, might have been in exist- 
ence before it was adopted as the token of a covenant. The sign of 
the covenant with Noah was a purely natural phenomenon, and there- 
fore entirely independent of man. That of the Abrahamic covenant 
was an artificial process, and therefore, though prescribed by God, was 
dependent on the voluntary agency of man. The former marked the 
sovereignty of God in ratifying the covenant and insuring its fulfilment, 
notwithstanding the mutability of man ; the latter indicates the respon- 



310 THE SEALING OF THE COVENANT. 

sibility of man, the trust he places in the word of promise, and the 
assent he gives to the terms of the divine mercy. As the. former 
covenant conveys a common natural blessing to all mankind and con- 
templates a common spiritual blessing, so the latter conveys a special 
spiritual blessing and contemplates its universal acceptance. The 
rainbow was the appropriate natural emblem of preservation from a 
Hood ; and the removal of the foreskin was the fit symbol of that re- 
moval of the old man and renewal of nature, which qualified Abraham 
to be the parent of a holy seed. And as the former sign foreshadows 
an incorruptible inheritance, so the latter prepares the way for a holy 
seed, by which the holiness and the heritage will at length be univer- 
sally extended. 

It is worthy of remark that in circumcision, after Abraham himself, 
the parent is the voluntary imponent, and the child merely the pas- 
sive recipient of the sign of the covenant. Hereby is taught the lesson 
of parental responsibility and parental hope. This is the first formal 
step in a godly education, in which the parent acknowledges his obli- 
gation to perform all the rest. It is also, on the command of God, the 
formal admission of the believing parents' ofFspring into the privileges 
of the covenant, and therefore cheers the heart of the parent in entering 
upon the parental task. This admission cannot be reversed but by 
the deliberate rebellion of the child. 

Still further, the sign of the covenant is to be applied to every male 
in the household of Abraham. This indicates that the servant or serf 
stands in the relation of a child to his master or owner, who is therefore 
accountable for the soul of his serf, as for that of his son. It points 
out the applicability of the covenant to others, as well as the children 
of Abraham, and therefore its capability of universal extension when 
the fulness of time should come. It also intimates the very plain but 
very often forgotten truth, that our obligation to obey God is not 
cancelled by our unwillingness. The serf is bound to have his child 
circumcised as long as God requires it, though he may be unwilling to 
comply with the divine commandments. 

12-14. The time of circumcision is the eighth day. Seven is the 
number of perfection. Seven days are therefore regarded as a type 
of perfect age and individuality. At this stage, accordingly, the sign 
of sanctification is made on the child, betokening the consecration of 
the heart to God, when its rational powers have come into noticeable 
activity. To be cut off from his people is to be excluded from any 
part in the covenant, and treated simply as a Gentile or alien, some of 



GEN. XVII. 311 

whom seem to have dwelt among the Israelites. It was sometimes 
accompanied with the sentence of death (Ex. xxxi. 14) ; and this 
shows that it did not of itself imply such a doom. Excommunication, 
however, for the omission of circumcision, would be extremely rare, as 
no parent would intentionally neglect the sacred interest of his child. 
Yet the omission of this rite has not been unprecedented, as the 
children of Israel did not generally circumcise their children in the 
wilderness (Jos. v. 5). 

15-22. Sarai is now formally taken into the covenant, as she is to 
be the mother of the promised seed. Her name is therefore changed 
to Sarah, princess. Aptly is she so named, for she is to bear the child 
of promise, to become nations, and be the mother of kings. 17. Abra- 
ham fell upon his face and laughed. From the reverential attitude 
assumed by Abraham we infer that his laughter sprang from joyful 
and grateful surprise. Said in his heart. The following questions 
of wonder are not addressed to God ; they merely agitate the breast 
of the astonished patriarch. Hence his irrepressible smile arises not 
from any doubt of the fulfilment of the promise, but from surprise at 
the unexpected mode in which it is to be fulfilled. Laughing in 
Scripture expresses joy in the countenance, as dancing does in the 
whole body. 

18-20. Abraham seems up to this time to have regarded Ishmael 
as the promised seed. Hence a feeling of anxiety instantly penetrates 
his breast. It finds utterance in the prayer, Oh that Ishmael might 
live before thee. He asks life for his beloved son, — that is, a share in 
the divine favor ; and that before God, — that is, a life of holiness and 
communion with God. But God asseverates his purpose of giving 
him a son by Sarah. This son is to be called Isaac, — he that laughs or 
he shall laugh, in reference to the various emotions of surprise and de- 
light with which his parents regarded his birth. Abram's prayer for 
Ishmael, however, is not unanswered. He is to be fruitful, beget 
twelve princes, and become a great nation. 21, 22. But Isaac is to be 
the heir of promise. At the present season next year he is to be born. 
The communication being completed, God went up from Abram. 

23-27. In the selfsame day. In this passage we have the prompt 
and punctual fulfilment of the command concerning circumcision de- 
tailed with all the minuteness due to its importance. Ishmael was 
thirteen years of age when he was circumcised. Josephus relates 
that the Arabs accordingly delay circumcision till the thirteenth year 
(Ant. I. 12. 2). 



312 VISIT OF THE LORD TO ABEAHAM. 



XLIV. VISIT OF THE LORD TO ABRAHAM.— Gen. xviii. 

2. bTOjtoh how, or bend the body in token of respect to God or 
man. The attitude varies from a slight inclination of the body to 
entire prostration with the forehead touching the ground. 

6. nxp a seah, about an English peck, the third part of an ephah. 
The ephah contained ten omers. The omer held about five pints. 

XVIII. 1. And the Lord appeared unto him by the oaks 
of Mamre, and he sat at the tent door in the heat of the day. 
2. And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood 
before him ; and he saw and ran to meet them from the tent 
door, and bowed himself to the earth ; 3. And said, Lord, 
if now I have found favor in thine eyes, pass not away now 
from thy servant. 4. Let a little water now be fetched, and 
wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree ; 5. And 
I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts": 
afterwards ye shall pass on ; for therefore are ye come to your 
servant. And they said, So do, as thou hast spoken. 6. And 
Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said, Hasten 
with three seahs of fine meal, knead it, and make hearth-cakes. 

7. And Abraham ran unto the herd, and fetched a calf, tender 
and good, and gave it to the lad, and he hasted to dress it. 

8. And he fetched butter and milk and the calf which he had 
dressed, and set before them, and he stood by them under the 
tree, and they did eat. 

9. And they said unto him, Where is Sarah, thy wife? 
And he said, Behold, in the tent. 10. And he said, I will 
surely return unto thee at the time of life, and lo, Sarah, thy 
wife, shall have a son. And Sarah heard in the tent door 
which was behind him. 11. Now Abraham and Sarah were 
old, far gone in days : it ceased to be with Sarah after the 
manner of women. 12. And Sarah laughed within herself, 
saying, After I am faded is pleasure come to me, and my lord 
is old? 13. And the Lord said unto Abraham, Why hath 



GEX. XVIII. * old 

Sarah laughed, saying, Shall I indeed bear when I am old ? 
14. Is anything too hard for the Lord ? At the set time will 
I return unto thee about the time of life, and Sarah shall have 
a son. 15. Then Sarah denied, saying, I laughed not ; for 
she was afraid. And he said, Nay, but thou didst laugh. 

16. And the men rose up thence and looked toward Sodom ; 
and Abraham went with them to convoy them. 17. And the 
Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that which I do ? 18. 
And Abraham shall surely become a nation, great and mighty, 
and blessed in him shall be all the nations of the earth. 19. 
For I have known him, that he may command his children and 
his house after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, 
to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon 
Abraham that which he hath spoken of him. 20. And the 
Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and Amorah is great, 
and their sin is very grievous, 21. Let me go down now, 
and see if they have done altogether according to the cry of it 
which is come unto me ; and if not, let me know. 22. And 
the men turned their faces thence, and went toward Sodom ; 
and Abraham was yet standing before the Lord. 

23. And Abraham drew near and said, Wilt thou also 
destroy the righteous with the wicked ? 24. Mayhap there be 
fifty righteous within the city : wilt thou also destroy and not 
spare the place for the fifty righteous that arc therein ? 25. 
Far be it from thee to do after this manner, to slay the right- 
eous with the wicked, that the righteous be as the wicked : 
far be it from thee. Shall not the judge of all the earth do 
right ? 26. And the Lord said, If I find in Sodom fifty right- 
eous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their 
sake. 27. And Abraham answered and said, Behold now I 
have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, who am but dust 
and ashes. 28. Mayhap the fifty righteous lack five : wilt 
thou destroy for the five all the city ? And he said I will not 
destroy it, if I find there forty and five. 29. And he spake 
unto him yet again and said, Mayhap there be forty found 
40 



oM VISIT OF THE LOSD TO ABRAHAM. 

there ? And he said, I will not do it for the forty's sake. 
80. And he said, Let not the Lord now be angry, and I will 
speak : mayhap there be thirty found there ? And he said, I 
will not do it if I find thirty there. 31. And he said, Behold 
now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lorn : mayhap 
there be twenty found there ? And he said, I will not destroy 
it for the twenty's sake. 32. And he said, let not the Lord 
be angry, and I will speak but this once : mayhap there be 
ten found there ? And he said, I will not destroy it for the 
ten's sake. 33. And the Lord went his way, as soon as he 
had left speaking with Abraham ; and Abraham returned to 
his place. 

This chapter describes Abraham's fellowship with Gocl. On the gra- 
cious assurance of the Bedeejner and Vindicator, " Fear not, I am thy 
shield and thy exceeding great reward," he ceased to fear, and believed. 
On the solemn announcement of the Conqueror of evil and the Quick- 
cner of the dead, " I am God Almighty ; walk before me and be per- 
fect/' he began anew to walk with God in holiness and truth. The 
next step is, that God enters into communion with him as a man with 
his friend (Isa. xli. 8 ; John. xiv. 23). Hitherto he has appeared 
to him as God offering grace and inclining the will to receive it. Now, 
as God who has bestowed grace, he appears to him who has accepted 
it and is admitted into a covenant of peace. He visits him for the 
twofold purpose of drawing out and completing the faith of Sarah, and 
of communing with Abraham concerning the destruction of Sodom. 

1-15. The Lord visits Abraham and assures Sarah of the birth of 
a son. Abraham is sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day, 
reposing. Three men stood before him. Whenever visitants from the 
celestial world appear to men, they have the form of man. This is 
the only form of a rational being known to us. It is not the design of 
God in revealing his mercy to us to make us acquainted with the whole 
of the nature of things. The science of things visible or invisible he 
leaves to our natural faculties to explore, as far as occasion allows. 
Hence we conclude that the celestial visitant is a real being, and that 
the form is a real form. But we are not entitled to infer that the 
human is the only or the proper form of such beings, or that they have 
any ordinary or constant form open to sense. We only discern that 



GEN. XVIII. oID 

they are intelligent beings like ourselves, and, in order to manifest 
themselves to us as such, put on that form of intelligent creatures with 
which we are familiar, and in which they can intelligibly confer with 
us. For the same reason they speak the language of the party ad- 
dressed, though, for ought we know, spiritual beings use none of the 
many languages of humanity, and have quite a different mode of 
communicating with one another. Other human acts follow on the 
occasion. They accept the hospitality of Abraham and partake of 
human food. This, also, was a real act. It does not imply, however, 
that food is necessary to spiritual beings. The whole is a typical act 
representing communion between God and Abraham. The giving 
and receiving of a meal was the ground of a perpetual or inviolable 
friendship. 

He ran to meet him. This indicates the genuine warmth of unso- 
phisticated nature. Bowed himself to the earth. This indicates a low 
bow, in which the body becomes horizontal, and the head droops. 
This gesture is employed both in worship and doing obeisance. 

3-5. Lord. Abraham uses the word "Oia denoting one having 
authority, whether divine or not. This the Masorites mark as sacred, 
and apply the vowel points proper to the word when it signifies God. 
These men in some way represent God ; for the Lord on this occasion 
appeared unto Abraham (v. 1). The number is in this respect nota- 
ble. Abraham addresses himself first to one person (v. 3), then to 
more than one (v. 4, 5). It is stated that " they said, So do (v. 5), they 
did eat (v. 8), they said unto him, Where is Sarah thy wife " (v. 9). 
Then the singular number is resumed in the phrase and he said (v. 
10), and at length, " The Lord said unto Abraham " (v. 13), and then, 
"and he said" (v. 15). Then we are told "the men rose up, and 
Abraham went with them " (v. 16). Then we have " The Lord said " 
twice (v. 17, 20). And lastly, it is said (v. 22) " the men turned their 
faces and went toward Sodom, and Abraham was yet standing before 
the Lord." From this it appears that of the three men one, at all 
events, was the Lord, who, when the other two went towards Sodom, 
remained with Abraham while he made his intercession for Sodom, 
and afterwards he also went his way. The other two will come be- 
fore us again in the next chapter. Meanwhile we have here the first 
explicit instance of the Lord appearing as man to man, and holding 
familiar intercourse with him. 

The narrative affords a pleasing instance of the primitive manners 
of the East. The hospitality of the pastoral tribes was spontaneous 



316 VISIT OF THE LORD TO ABRAHAM. 

and unreserved. The washing of the feet, which were partly at least 
uncovered in walking, the reclining under the tree, and the offer of 
refreshment, are indicative of an unchanging rural simplicity. The 
phrases a little water ; a morsel of bread, flow from a thoughtful cour- 
tesy. Therefore are ye come. In the course of events it has so fallen 
out, in order that you might be refreshed. The brief reply is a frank 
and unaffected acceptance of the hospitable invitation. 

6-8. Abraham hastened. The unvarying customs of Eastern pasto- 
ral life here come up before us. There is plenty of flour and of live 
cattle. But the cakes have to be kneaded and baked on the hearth, 
and the calf has to be killed and dressed. Abraham personally gives 
directions, Sarah personally attends to the baking, and the boy or lad 
— that is, the domestic servant whose business it is — kills and dresses 
the meat. Abraham himself attends upon his guests. Three seahs. 
About three pecks, and therefore a superabundant supply for three 
guests. An omer, or three tenths of a seah, was considered sufficient 
for one man for a day (Ex. xvi. 16). But Abraham had a numer- 
ous household, and plentifulness was the character of primitive hospi- 
tality. Hearth cakes, baked among the coals. Butter, — seemingly 
any preparation of milk, cream, curds, or butter, all of which are used 
in the East. 

9-15. The promise to Sarah. The men now enter upon the business 
of their visit. Where is Sarah thy wife f The jealousy and seclu- 
sion of later times had not yet rendered such an inquiry uncourteous. 
Sarah is within hearing of the conversation. / will certainly return 
unto thee. This is the language of self-determination, and therefore 
suitable to the sovereign, not to the ambassador. At the time of life ; 
literally the living time, seemingly the time of birth, when the child 
comes to manifest life. Sarah thy wife shall have a son. Sarah 
hears this with incredulous surprise, and laughs with mingled doubt 
and delight. She knows that in the nature of things she is past child- 
bearing. 14. Is anything too hard for the Lord? Sarah laughed 
within herself, within the tent and behind the speaker ; yet to her 
surprise her internal feelings are known to him. She finds there is 
One present who rises above the sphere of nature. In her confusion 
and terror she denies that she laughed. But he who sees what is within, 
insists that she did laugh, at least in the thought of her heart. There 
is a beautiful simplicity in the whole scene. Sarah now doubtless 
received faith and strength to conceive. 

16-33. The conference concerning Sodom. The human manner of 



GEN. XVIII. 317 

the interview is carried out to the end. Abraham convoys his de- 
parting guests. The Lord then speaks, apparently debating with 
himself whether he shall reveal his intentions to Abraham. The rea- 
sons for doing so are assigned. 1st. Abraham shall surely become a 
nation great and mighty, and therefore has the interest of humanity in 
this act of retribution on Sodom. All that concerns man concerns him. 
2d. Blessed in him shall be all the nations of the earth. Hence he is 
personally and directly concerned with all the dealings of mercy and 
judgment among the inhabitants of the earth. 3d. I have known him. 
The Lord has made himself known to him, has manifested his love to 
him, has renewed him after his own image ; and hence this judgment 
upon Sodom is to be explained to him, that he may train his household 
to avoid the sins of this doomed city, to keep the way of the Lord, to do 
justice and judgment ; and all this to the further intent that the Lord 
may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him. The aw- 
ful judgments of the Lord on Sodom, as before on the antediluvian 
world, are a warning example to all who are spared or hear of them. 
And those who, notwithstanding these monuments of the divine ven- 
geance, will cease to do justice and judgment, may be certain that they 
will not continue to enjoy the benefits of the covenant of grace. For 
all these reasons it is meet that the secret of Lord be with him (Ps. 
xxv. 11). 

20-22. The Lord now proceeds to unfold his design. There is 
justice in every step of the divine procedure. He comes down to in- 
quire and act according to the merits of the case. The men now depart 
on their errand ; but Abraham still stands before the Lord. 

23-33. Abraham intercedes for Sodom. His spiritual character is 
unfolded and exalted more and more. He employs the language of a 
free-born son with his heavenly Father. He puts forward the plea of 
justice to the righteous in behalf of the city. He ventures to repeat 
his intervention six times, every time diminishing the number of the 
righteous whom he supposes to be in it. The patience of the Lord is 
no less remarkable than the perseverance of Abraham. In every case 
he grants his petition. 27. Dust and ashes. This may refer to the 
custom of burning the dead, as then coexistent with that of burying 
them. Abraham intimates by a homely figure the comparative insig- 
nificance of the petitioner. He is dust at first, and ashes at last. 

This completes the full and free intercourse of God with Abraham. 
He accepts his hospitable entertainment, renews his promise of a son 
by Sarah, communicates to him his counsel, and grants all his requests. 



318 DESTRUCTION OF SODOM AND AMOEAH. 

It is evident that Abraham has now fully entered upon all the privileges 
of the sons of God. He has become the friend of God (James ii. 23). 



XLV. DESTRUCTION OF SODOM AND AMORAH. — Gen. xix. 

9. rixbrroa approach to a distant point, stand back. 
11. c^SD blindness, affecting the mental more than the ocular vision. 
87. ajtin Moab, nx'a from a father. IBS", 15 Ben-ammi, son of my 
people. "JIBS 'Amnion, of the people. 

XIX. 1. And the two angels came to Sodom at even, and 
Lot sat in the gate of Sodom : and Lot saw and rose up to meet 
them, and bowed with his face to the earth. 2. And he said, 
Behold, now, my lords, turn aside now to your servant's house, 
and lodge, and wash your feet; and ye shall rise up early, and 
go on your way. And they said, Nay, but in the street will wo 
lodge. 3. And he pressed upon them greatly; and they turned 
aside to him, and went into his house : and he made them a 
feast, and baked unleavened cakes, and they did eat. 

4. They lay not yet down, and the men of the city, the men 
of Sodom, compassed the house, both young and old, all the 
people from every quarter. 5. And they called unto Lot, and 
said unto him, Where are the men who went in to thee to- 
night ? Bring them out unto us, and we shall know them. 
6. And Lot came out to them at the door, and shut the door 
after him. 7. And said, Do not now, my brethren, so wick- 
edly. 8. Behold, now, I have two daughters, who have not 
known man; let me now bring them out unto you, and do ye 
to them as is good in your eyes : only unto these men do noth- 
ing ; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof. 
9. And they said, Stand back. And they said, This one is 
come in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge ; now will we 
deal worse with thee than with them. And they pressed sore 
upon the man, even Lot, and drew near to break the door. 



GEN. XIX. 319 

10. And the men put forth their hand, and pulled Lot to them 
into the house, and shut the door. 11. And the men that were 
at the door of the house they smote with blindness, both small 
and great : and they wearied themselves to find the door. 

12. And the men said unto Lot, Whom else hast thou here? 
Son-in-law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and all that thou 
hast in the city, bring out of this place. 13. For destroy will 
Ave this place, because the cry of them is waxen great before 
the Lord, and the Lord sent us to destroy it. 14. And Lot 
went out, and spake unto his sons-in-law, who married his 
daughters, and said, Up, get ye out of this place, for the Lord 
will destroy this city. But he was as a mocker in the eyes of 
his sons-in-law. 15. And when the dawn arose, then the an- 
gels urged Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife and thy two daugh- 
ters, who are here, lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of 
the city. 1G. And he lingered, and the men laid hold on his 
hand, and on the hand of his wife, and on the hand of his 
two daughters, in the mercy of the Lord unto him : and they 
brought him forth, and set him without the city. 17. And it 
came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that 
he said, Escape for thy life ; look not behind thee, and stay 
not in all the vale ; escape to the mountain, lest thou be con- 
sumed. 18. And Lot said unto them, Not so now, Lord. 
19. Behold now, thy servant hath found grace in thine eyes, 
and thou didst magnify thy mercy, which thou hast showed 
unto me in saving my life ; and I, I cannot escape to the moun- 
tain, lest evil overtake me, and I die. 20. Behold, now, this 
city is near to flee unto, and it is a small place : let me now 
escape thither ; is it not a small place ? and my soul shall live. 
21. And he said unto him, Lo, I have accepted thee also con- 
cerning this thing, not to overthrow the city for which thou 
hast spoken. 22. Haste thee, escape thither; for I cannot do 
anything till thou go thither. Therefore was the name of the 
city called Zoar. 23. The sun was come forth upon the earth, 
when Lot entered Zoar. 



320 DESTRUCTION OF SODOM AND AMORAH. 

24. Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and Amorah brim- 
stone and fire from the Lord from the skies. 25. And he 
overthrew those cities, and all the vale, and all the inhabitants 
of the cities, and that which grew upon the soil. 26. And his 
wife looked from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. 

27. And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place 
where he stood before the Lord. 28. And looked out upon 
Sodom and Amorah, and upon all the land of the vale, and 
beheld, and lo, the smoke of the land went up as the smoke 
of a furnace. 29. And it came to pass when God destroyed 
the cities of the vale, that God remembered Abraham, and 
sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew 
the cities in which Lot dwelt. 

80. And Lot went up out of Zoar, and dwelt in the moun- 
tain, and his two daughters with him ; for he feared to dwell 
in Zoar : and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters. 
31. And the first-born said unto the younger, Our father is 
old, and there is not a man in the land to come in unto us 
after the manner of all the land. 32. Come, let us make our 
father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we preserve 
seed of our father. 83. And they made their father drink 
wine that night : and the first-born went in and lay with her 
father ; and he knew not of her lying down or of her rising 
up. 34. And it came to pass on the morrow that the first-born 
said unto the younger, Behold, I lay yesternight with my father: 
let us make him drink wine this night also, and go lie with 
Mm, that we may preserve seed of our father. 35. And they 
made their father drink wine that night also : and the younger 
arose and lay with him ; and he knew not of her lying down 
or of her rising up. 36. And the two daughters of Lot were 
with child by their father. 37. And the first-born bare a son, 
and called his name Moab : the same is the father of Moab 
unto this day. 88. And the younger, she also bare a son, and 
called his name Ben-ammi : the same is the father of the chil- 
dren of Amnion unto this day. § 31. 



GEN. XIX. 321 

This chapter is the continuation and conclusion of the former. It 
records a part of God's strange work, — strange, because it consists in 
punishment, and because it is foreign to the covenant of grace. Yet 
it is closely connected with Abraham's history, inasmuch as it is a sig- 
nal chastisement of wickedness in his neighborhood, a memorial of the 
righteous judgment of God to all his posterity, and at the same time 
a remarkable answer to the spirit, if not to the letter, of his interces- 
sory prayer. His kinsman Lot, the only righteous man in Sodom, with 
his wife and two daughters, is delivered from destruction in accordance 
with his earnest appeal on behalf of the righteous. 

1-3. Tit e two angels. These are the two men who left Abraham 
standing before the Lord (Gen. xviii. 22). Lot satin the gate, the 
place of public resort for news and for business. He courteously rises 
to meet them, does obeisance to them, and invites them to spend the 
night in his house. Nay, but in the street will we lodge. This is the 
disposition of those who come to inquire, and, it may be, to condemn 
and to punish. They are twice in this chapter called angels, being 
sent to perform a delegated duty. This term, however, defines their 
office, not their nature. Lot, in the first instance, calls them " my 
lords," which is a term of respect that may be addressed to men (Gen. 
xxxi. 35). He afterwards styled one of them Adonai, with the pecu- 
liar vowel pointing which limits it to the Supreme Being. He at the 
same time calls himself his servant, appeals to his grace and mercy, 
and ascribes to him his deliverance. The person thus addressed 
replies, in a tone of independence and authority, " I have accepted 
thee." " I will not overthrow this city for which thou hast spoken." 
" I cannot do anything till thou go thither." All these circumstances 
point to a divine personage, and are not so easily explained of a mere 
delegate. He is preeminently the Saviour, as he who communed with 
Abraham was the hearer of prayer. And he who hears prayer and 
saves life, appears also as the executor of his purpose in the over- 
throw of Sodom and the other cities of the vale. It is remarkable 
that only two of the three who appeared to Abraham are called angels. 
Of the persons in the divine essence two might be the angels or dep- 
uties of the primary in the discharge of the divine purpose. These 
three men, then, either immediately represent, or, if created angels, 
mediately shadow forth persons in the Godhead. Their number 
indicates that the persons in the divine unity are three. 

Lot seems to have recognized something extraordinary in their 
appearance, for he made a lowly obeisance to them. The Sodomites 
41 



322 DESTRUCTION OF SODOM AND AMORAH. 

heed not the strangers. Lot's invitation, at first declined, is at length 
accepted, because Lot is approved of God as righteous, and excepted 
from the doom of the city. 

4-11. The wicked violence of the citizens displays itself. 4, o. 
They compass the house, and demand the men for the vilest ends. 
6-8. How familiar Lot had become with vice, when any necessity 
whatever could induce him to offer his daughters to the lust of these 
Sodomites ! We may suppose it was spoken rashly, in the heat of the 
moment, and with the expectation that he would not be taken at his 
word. So it turned out. 9. Stand bach. This seems to be a menace 
to frighten Lot out of the way of their perverse will. It is probable, 
indeed, that he and his family would not have been so long safe in this 
wicked place, had he not been the occasion of a great deliverance to 
the whole city when they were carried away by the four kings. The 
threat is followed by a taunt, when the sorely vexed host hesitated to 
give up the strangers. He will needs be a judge. It is evident Lot 
had been in the habit of remonstrating with them. From threats and 
taunts they soon proceed to violence. 10, 11. His guests now inter- 
fere. They rescue Lot, and smite the rioters with blindness, or a 
wandering of the senses, so that they cannot find the door. This 
ebullition of the vilest passion seals the doom of the city. 

12-28. The visitors now take steps for the deliverance of Lot and 
his kindred before the destruction of the cities. 12-14. All that are 
related to him are included in the offer of deliverance. There is a 
blessing in being connected with the righteous, if men will but avail 
themselves of it. 15, 16. Lot seems bewildered by the contemptuous 
refusal of his connections to leave the place. His early choice and 
his growing habits have attached him to the place, notwithstanding its 
temptations. His married daughters, or at least the intended husbands 
of the two who were at home (" who are here"), are to be left behind. 
But though these thoughts make him linger, the mercy of the Lord 
prevails. The angels use a little violence to hasten their escape. 17. 
TJie mountain was preserved by its elevation from the flood of rain, 
sulphur, and fire which descended on the low ground on which the 
cities were built. 18-22. Lot begs for a small town to which he may 
retreat, as he shrinks from the perils of a mountain dwelling, and his 
request is mercifully granted. 

24-26. Then follows the overthrow of the cities. The Lord rained 
brimstone and fire from the Lord from the shies. Here the Lord is 
represented as present in the skies, whence the storm of desolation 



GEN. XIX. 323 

comes, and on the earth where it falls. The dale of Siddim, in which 
the cities were, appears to have abounded in asphalt and other com- 
bustible materials (Gen. xiv. 10). The district was liable to earth- 
quakes and volcanic eruptions from the earliest to the latest times. 
We read of an earthquake in the days of king Uzziah (Am. i. 1). 
An earthquake in 1759 destroyed many thousands of persons in the 
valley of Baalbec. Josephus (Be Bell. Jud. iii. 10, 7) reports that 
the Salt Sea sends up in many places black masses of asphalt, which 
are not unlike headless bulls in shape and size. After an earthquake 
in 1834, masses of asphalt were thrown up from the bottom, and in 
1837 a similar cause was attended with similar effects. The lake lies 
in the lowest part of the valley of the Jordan, and its surface is about 
thirteen hundred feet below the level of the sea. In such a hollow, 
exposed to the burning rays of an unclouded sun, its waters evaporate 
as much as it receives by the influx of the Jordan. Its present area 
is about forty-five miles by eight. A peninsula pushes into it from the 
east called the Lisan, or tongue, the north point of which is about 
twenty miles from the south end of the lake. North of this point the 
depth is from forty to two hundred and eighteen fathoms. This south- 
ern part of the lake seems to have been the original dale of Siddim, in 
which were the cities of the vale. The remarkable salt hills lying on 
the south of the lake are still called Khashm Usdum (Sodom). A 
tremendous storm, accompanied with flashes of lightning, and torrents 
of rain, impregnated with sulphur, descended upon the doomed cities. 
From the injunction to Lot to flee to the mountain, as well as from the 
nature of the soil, we may infer that at the same time with the awful 
conflagration there was a subsidence of the ground, so that the waters 
of the upper and original lake flowed in upon the former fertile and 
populous dale, and formed the shallow southern part of the present 
Salt Sea. In this pool of melting asphalt and sweltering, seething 
waters, the cities seem to have sunk forever, and left behind them no 
vestiges of their existence. Lot's wife lingering behind her husband, 
and looking back, contrary to the express command of the Lord, is 
caught in the sweeping tempest, and becomes a pillar of salt : so nar- 
row was the escape of Lot. The dashing spray of the salt sulphurous 
rain seems to have suffocated her, and then encrusted her whole body. 
She may have burned to a cinder in the furious conflagration. She is 
a memorable example of the indignation and wrath that overtakes the 
halting and the backsliding. 

27-29. Abraham rises early on the following morning, to see what 



324 ABEAHAM IN GERAR. 

Lad become of the city for which he had interceded so earnestly, and 
views from afar the scene of smoking desolation. Remembering 
Abraham, who was Lot's uncle, and had him probably in mind in his 
importunate pleading, God delivered Lot from this awful overthrow. 
The Eternal is here designated by the name Elohim, the Everlast- 
ing, because in the war of elements in which the cities were over- 
whelmed, the eternal potencies of his nature were signally displayed. 

80-38. The descendants of Lot. Bewildered by the narrowness 
of his escape, and the awful death of his wife, Lot seems to have left 
Zoar, and taken to the mountain west of the Salt Sea, in terror of 
impending ruin. It is not improbable that all the inhabitants of Zoar, 
panic-struck, may have fled from the region of danger, and dispersed 
themselves for a time through the adjacent mountains. He was now far 
from the habitations of men, with his two daughters as his only com- 
panions. 32-36. The manners of Sodom here obtrude themselves 
upon our view. Lot's daughters might seem to have been led to this 
unnatural project, first, because they thought the human race extinct 
with the exception of themselves, in which case their conduct may 
have seemed a work of justifiable necessity ; and next, because the 
degrees of kindred within which it was unlawful to marry had not 
been determined by an express law. But they must have seen some 
of the inhabitants of Zoar after the destruction of the cities ; and car- 
nal intercourse between parent and offspring must have been always 
repugnant to nature. 37, 38. Unto this day. This phrase indicates a 
variable period, from a few years to a few centuries : a few years, not 
more than seven, as Jos. xxii. 3 ; part of a lifetime, as Num. xxii. 39, 
Jas. vi. 25, Gen. xlviii. 15 ; and some centuries, as Exod. x. 6. This* 
passage may therefore have been written by one much earlier than 
Moses. Moab afterwards occupied the district south of the Arnon, and 
east of the Salt Sea. Ammon dwelt to the northeast of Moab, where 
they had a capital called Rabbah. They both ultimately merged into 
the more general class of the Arabs, as a second Palgite element. 



XLVI. ABRAHAM IN GERAR. — Gen. xx. 

2. ^ttX Abmielekh, father of the king. 

7. »ia| prophet, he who speaks by God, of God, and to God, who 
declares to men not merely things future, but also things past and 



GEN. XX. 325 

present, that are not obvious to the sense or the reason ; r. flow, go 
forth. 

13. Whh is plural in punctuation, agreeing grammatically with 
S^?.- Vau, however, may be regarded as the third radical, and the 
verb may thus really be singular. 

16. Vtvy: an unusual form, either for Sffftb 2d s. f. perfect or firisb 
3d s. f. perf., from a verb signifying in hiphil, make straight, right. 

17. rrsx hand-maid, free or bond. Jihad bond-maid (1 Sam. xxv. 
41). 

XX. 1. And Abraham journeyed thence to the land of the 
south, and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and he so- 
journed in Gerar. 2. And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She 
is my sister : and Abimelek king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. 
3. And God came to Abimelek in a dream by night, and said 
to him, Behold, thou wilt die on account of the woman whom 
thou hast taken ; for she is a man's wife. 4. And Abimelek 
had not come near her : and he said, Lord, wilt thou slay a 
righteous nation also ? 5. Said he not unto me, She is my sister ? 
And she, even herself, said, He is my brother. In the integ- 
rity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this. 
6. And the God said unto him in the dream, I also know that in 
the integrity of thy heart thou hast done this ; I also, I withheld 
thee from sinning against me: therefore suffered I thee not to 
touch her. 7. And now restore the man's wife ; for he is a 
prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live : but 
if thou restore her not, know that die, die shalt thou, thou, 
and all that are thine. 

, 8. And Abimelek rose early in the morning, and called 
all his servants, and spake all these words in their ears : and 
the men were sore afraid. 9. Then Abimelek called Abraham, 
and said unto him, What hast thou done unto us ? And how 
have I sinned against thee, that thou hast brought on me and 
on my kingdom a great sin ? Deeds that ought not to be 
done hast thou done unto me. 10. And Abimelek said unto 
Abraham, What sawest thou, that thou hast done this thing ? 
11. And Abraham said, Because I said, Surely the fear of God 



326 ABRAHAM IN GERAR. 

is not in this place : and they will slay me on account of my 
wife. 12. And yet in truth she is my sister, the daughter of 
my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became 
my wife. 13. And it came to pass, when God caused me to 
wander from my father's house, that I said unto her, This is 
thy kindness which thou shalt do unto me ; at every place 
whither we shall go, say of me, He is my brother. 

14. And Abimelek took sheep and oxen and men-servants 
and maid-servants and gave unto Abraham ; and restored him 
Sarah his wife. 15. And Abimelek said, Behold, my land is 
before thee ; dwell where it is good in thine eyes. 16. And 
unto Sarah he said, Behold, I have given a thousand silver 
pieces to thy brother ; behold, this is for thee a covering of 
the eyes unto all that are with thee ; and all this that thou 
mayest be righted. 17. Then Abraham prayed to God : and 
God healed Abimelek and his wife and his handmaids; and 
they bare. 18. For the Lord had fast closed up every womb 
in the house of Abimelek, on account of Sarah, Abraham's 
wife. § 32. 

The concealment of his relation to Sarah calls to our mind a similar 
act of Abraham recorded not many pages back. We are to remember, 
however, that an interval of twenty-four years has elapsed since that 
event. From the present passage we learn that this was an old 
agreement between him and his wife, while they were wandering 
among strangers. It appears that Abraham was not yet conscious of 
anything wrong or even imprudent in this piece of policy. Pie there- 
fore practises it without any hesitation. On this occasion he appears 
for the first time as a prophet. He is the first of this order introduced 
to our notice in the Old Testament, though Henok had prophesied at 
an earlier period (Jude 14), and Noah's benediction was, at the same 
time, a prediction. 

1-7. Abimelek takes Sarah. 1. Abraham had been dwelling near 
Hebron. But the total separation between him and Lot, and the 
awful overthrow of Sodom and Amorah in the vicinity, may have 
loosened his tie to Hebron, and rendered it for the present not an 
agreeable place of residence. He therefore travels southward and 



GEN. XX. 



327 



takes up his abode at Gerar (see on Gen. x. 19). 2. Sarah, though 
now eighty-nine years of age, was as youthful in look as a person of 
forty would now be. She had, moreover, had no family, was remarkable 
for her good looks, and was at present, no doubt, renewed in health 
and vigor (Gen. xii. 11-16). 

3-7. The Supreme Being here appears as God (Elohim), and 
therefore in his eternal power and independence, as he was antecedent 
to the creation of man. He communicates with Abimelek in a dream. 
This prince addresses him as Adonai, Lord. We have already seen 
that the knowledge of the true God had not yet disappeared from the 
Gentile world, who were under the Noachic covenant. 3. Thou wilt 
die. Thou art dying or at the point of death if thou persist. A 
deadly plague was already in the body of Abimelek, on account of 
Sarah. 4. Wilt thou slay a righteous nation also ? Abimelek asso- 
ciates his nation with himself, and expects that the fatal stroke will 
not be confined to his own person. 5-7. He pleads his integrity in 
the matter, which the Lord acknowledges. Gentiles sometimes act 
according to the dictates of conscience, which still lives in them, though 
it be obscured by sin. Abimelek was innocent in regard to the " great 
sin " of seizing another man's wife, of which God acquitted him. He 
was wrong in appropriating a woman to himself by mere stretch of 
power, and in adding wife to wife. But these were common customs 
of the time, for which his conscience did not upbraid him in his plead- 
ing with God. And the God. The presence of the definite article 
seems to intimate a contrast of the true God with the false gods to 
which the Gentiles were fast turning. Abimelek was at least in the 
doubtful ground on the borders of polytheism. 

7. Abraham is here designated by the Lord a prophet. This con- 
stituted at once the gravity of Abimelek's offence (Ps. cv. 15), and 
the ground of his hope of pardon. It is at the same time a step in 
advance of all the previous spiritual attainments of Abraham. A 
prophet is God's spokesman, who utters with authority certain of the 
things of God (Ex. vii. 1, iv. 15). This implies two things: first, 
the things of God are known only to him, and therefore must be com- 
municated by him ; secondly, the prophet must be enabled of God to 
announce in correct terms the things made known to him. These 
things refer not only to the future, but in general to all such matters 
as fall within the purpose and procedure of God. They may even 
include things otherwise known or knowable by man, so far as these 
are necessary to the exposition of the divine will. Now Abraham 



328 ABRAHAM IN GERAR. 

has heretofore received many communications from God. But this 
did not constitute him a prophet. It is the divinely authorized utter- 
ance of new truth which raises him to this rank. And Abraham's 
first exercise in prophecy is not in speaking to men of God, but to 
God for men. He shall pray for thee. The prophetic and the priestly 
offices go together in the father of the faithful. These dignities belong 
to him, not from any absolute merit, for this he has not, but from his 
call to be the holder of the promise, and the father of that seed to 
whom the promises were made. 

8-13. Abimelek retraces his steps, and rectifies his conduct. He 
makes knoAvn his dream to his assembled court, who are filled with 
astonishment and apprehension. He then calls Abraham, and in bold 
and manly style remonstrates with him for leading him into error and 
sin. 10. Abraham is apparently silent from confusion and self-con- 
demnation. Abimelek, after a pause, demands of him his reason for 
so doing. 11-13. Abraham now replies with great simplicity and 
candor. He had said within himself, " The fear of God is not in this 
place." This is another indication that polytheism was setting in. He 
concluded that his life would be in danger on account of his wife, and 
resorted to his wonted expedient for safety. He had learned to trust 
in the Lord in all things ; but he did not think this inconsistent with 
using all lawful means for personal security, and he was not yet fully 
alive to the unlawfulness of his usual pretence. He pleads also in 
extenuation that she is in reality his sister (see Gen. ii. 29, 30). 13. 
Caused me to wander. The verb here is not necessarily plural. But 
if it be, it is only an instance of the literal meaning of Elohim, the 
Eternal Supernatural Powers, coming into view. Thy kindness. The 
old compact of Abraham with Sarah tended to palliate his conduct in 
the eyes of Abimelek, as he would see that it had no special reference 
to himself. 

14-18. Abimelek seems to have accepted his apology, as he probably 
felt that there was truth in the character Abraham gave of his people, 
and was precluded from resenting it by the salutary impression of his 
dream ; while at the same time Abraham's mode of avoiding danger 
appeared warrantable according to his own and the common code of 
morals. He therefore hastens to make honorable amends for his con- 
duct. He makes Abraham a valuable present, restores his wife, and 
makes him free to dwell in any part of his dominions. 1 6. He then 
accosts Sarah in respectful terms, informing her that he had presented 
her brother with one thousand silver pieces, probably shekels, on her 



GEN. XXI. 329 

account. He does not offer this directly to herself, that it may be dis- 
tinctly understood that her honor was unstained. This may refer either 
to Abraham or to the sum of money. The latter is more natural, as 
the sentence then affords a reason for addressing Sarah, and mentioning 
this particular gift. A covering of the eyes does not mean a veil, the 
proper word for which is CpSX, but is a figurative phrase for a recom- 
pense or pacificatory offering, in consideration of which an offence is 
overlooked. Unto all that are with thee. All her family were con- 
cerned in this public vindication of her character. And all this that 
thou mayest he righted. The original of this is most naturally taken 
as a part of Abimelek's speech, and then it is to be translated as above. 
All this has been done or given that the injury to Sarah may be re- 
dressed. If the original be regarded as a part of the narrative, it must 
be rendered, "And all this (was done) that she might be righted." 
The sense is the same in substance. In the former case the verb is in 
the second person, in the latter in the third. 

17, 18. These verses record the fact of Abraham's intercession for 
Abimelek, and explain in what sense he was on the point of dying 
(v. 3). They hare means that they were again rendered capable of 
procreating children, and in the natural course of things did so. The 
verb is in the masculine form, because both males and females were 
involved in this judicial malady. The name Jehovah is employed at 
the end of the chapter, because the relation of the Creator and Pre- 
server to Sarah is there prominent. 



XL VII. BIRTH OF ISAAC. — Gen. xxi. 

7. V57? speak, an ancient and therefore solemn and poetical word. 
14. nrn hottle, akin to i"i~n surround, enclose, and mn Mack. *ir»3 
Sid Beer-sheba', well of seven. 

22. bb"3 Pikhol, mouth or spokesman of all. 

23. *pa offspring, kin ; r. sprout, flourish. 1^3 progeny, perhaps 
acquaintance, cognate with "iSi he hefore (the eyes) and ipa mark. 

00. mx grove ; apovpa, LXX. ; fQbix a tree, Onk. 

XXI. 1. And the Lord had visited Sarah as lie had said. 
And the Lord did unto Sarah as he had spoken. 2. And 

■ 42 



330 BIRTH OF ISAAC. 

Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at 
the set time of which God had spoken to him. 3. And Abra- 
ham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom 
Sarah bare to him, Isaac. 4. And Abraham circumcised Isaac 
his son, being the son of eight days, as God had commanded 
him. 5. And Abraham was the son of a hundred years, when 
Isaac his son was born unto him. 6. And Sarah said, God 
hath made me to laugh ; all that hear will laugh with me. 

7. And she said, Who had said unto Abraham, Sarah hath 
suckled children ? for I have borne him a son in his old age. 

8. And the child grew, and was weaned ; and Abraham made 
a great feast in the day that Isaac was weaned. 

9. And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Mizrite, whom she 
had borne unto Abraham, laughing. 10. And she said unto 
Abraham, Cast out this handmaid and her son : for the son 
of this handmaid shall not be heir with my son, with Isaac. 
11. And the word was very grievous in Abraham's eyes, on 
account of his son. 12. And God said unto Abraham, Let it 
not be grievous in thine eyes because of the lad, and because 
of thy handmaid : in all that Sarah saith unto thee, hearken 
unto her voice ; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called. 13. And 
also the son of the handmaid will I make a nation, because 
he is thy seed. 14. And Abraham rose up early in the morn- 
ing, and took bread, and a bottle of water, and gave unto 
Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and the lad, and sent her 
away : and she went and wandered in the wilderness of Beer- 
sheba. 15. And the water was spent in the bottle, and she 
laid the lad under one of the shrubs. 16. And she went and 
sat by herself apart, as far as they shoot the bow : for she said, 
Let me not see the death of the lad. And she sat apart, and 
lifted up her voice and wept. 

17. And God heard the voice of the lad, and an angel of 
God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What 
aileth thee, Hagar ? fear not : for God hath heard the voice 
of the lad where he is. 18. Arise, lift up the lad, and hold 



GEN. XXI. 331 

thy hand upon him : for I will make him a great nation. 19. 
And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water ; and 
she went and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad 
drink. 20. And God was with the lad, and he grew ; and he 
dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer. 21. And he 
dwelt in the wilderness of Paran ; and his mother took him a 
wife out of the land of Mizraim. IF 20. 

22. And it came to pass at that time that Abimelek and Phi- 
kol, the captain of his host, said unto Abraham, saying, God 
is with thee in all that thou doest. 23. And now swear unto 
me by God here, that thou wilt not deal falsely with me, nor 
with my kin and kith : according to the kindness that I have 
done unto thee, shalt thou do unto me, and to the land where- 
in thou hast sojourned. 24. And Abraham said, I will swear. 
25. And Abraham reproved Abimelek on account of the well 
of water which Abimelek's servants had seized. 26. And 
Abimelek said, I wot not who hath done this thing : and thou 
also haclst not told me, and I also had not heard of it but to- 
day. 27. And Abraham took sheep and oxen, and gave unto 
Abimelek : and both of them made a covenant. 28. And 
Abraham set seven ewe-lambs of the flock by themselves. 
29. And Abimelek said unto Abraham, What are these seven 
ewe-lambs which thou hast set by themselves ? 30. And he 
said, For the seven ewe-lambs shalt thou take of my hand, 
that it may be a witness to me that I have digged this well. 
31. Wherefore he called that place Beer-sheba, because there 
they sware both of them. 82. And they made a covenant at 
Beer-sheba: then rose up Abimelek and Phikol the captain 
of his host, and returned into the land of the Philistines. 
33. And he planted a grove in Beer-sheba, and called there 
on the name of the Lord, the God of eternity. 34. And 
Abraham sojourned in the land of the Philistines many 
days. IT 21. 

This chapter records the birth of Isaac with other concomitant cir- 



332 BIRTH OF ISAAC. 

cumstances. This is the beginning of the fulfilment of the second 
part of the covenant with Abraham — that concerning the seed. This 
precedes, we observe, his possession of even a foot-breadth of the soil, 
and is long antecedent to the entrance of his descendants as conquerors 
into the land of promise. 

1-8. Isaac is born according to promise, and grows to be weaned. 
1. The Lord had visited Sarah. It is possible that this event may 
have occurred before the patriarchal pair arrived in Gerar. To visit, 
is to draw near to a person for the purpose of either chastising or con- 
ferring a favor. The Lord had been faithful to his gracious promise 
to Sarah. He did as he had spoken. The object of the visit was 
accomplished. 2-5. In due time she bears a son, whom Abraham, in 
accordance with the divine command, calls Isaac, and circumcises on 
the eighth day. Abraham was now a hundred years old, and there- 
fore Isaac was born thirty years after the call. 6, 7. Sarah expressed 
her grateful wonder in two somewhat poetic strains. The first, consist- 
ing of two sentences, turns on the word laugh. This is no longer the 
laugh of delight mingled with doubt, but that of wonder and joy at the 
power of the Lord overcoming the impotence of the aged mother. 
The second strain of three sentences turns upon the object of this 
admiring joy. The event that nobody ever expected to hear announced 
to Abraham, has nevertheless taken place ;for I have borne him a son 
in his old age. 8. The time of weaning, the second step of the child 
to individual existence, at length arrives, and the household of Abra- 
ham make merry, as was wont, on the festive occasion. The infant 
was usually weaned in the second or third year (1 Sam. i. 22-24; 
2 Chron. xxxi. 16). The child seems to have remained for the first 
five years under the special care of the mother (Lev. xxvii. G). The 
son then came under the management of the father. 

9-21. The dismissal of Hagar and Ishmael. The son of Hagar . . . 
laughing. The birth of Isaac has made a great change in the position 
of Ishmael, now at the age of at least fifteen years. He was not now, 
as formerly, the chief object of attention, and some bitterness of feel- 
ing may have arisen on this account. His laugh was therefore the 
laugh of cferision. Rightly was the child of promise named Isaac, the 
one at whom all laugh with various feelings of incredulity, wonder, 
gladness, and scorn. Sarah cannot brook the insolence of Ishmael, 
and demands his dismissal. 11-13. This was painful to Abraham. 
Nevertheless, God enjoins it as reasonable, on the ground that in Isaac 
was his seed to be called. This means not only that Isaac was to be 



GEN. XXL 333 

called his seed, but in Isaac as the progenitor was included the seed of 
Abraham in the highest and utmost sense of the phrase. From him 
the holy seed was to spring that was to be the agent in eventually 
bringing the whole race again under the covenant of Noah, in that 
higher form which it assumes in the New Testament. Abraham is 
comforted in this separation with a renewal of the promise concerning 
Ishmael (Gen. xvii. 20). 14. He proceeds with ail singleness of 
heart and denial of self to dismiss the mother and the son. This sep- 
aration from the family of Abraham was, no doubt, distressing to the 
feelings of the parties concerned. But it involved no material hard- 
ship to those who departed, and conferred certain real advantages. 
Hagar obtained her freedom. Ishmael, though called a lad, was at an 
age when it is not unusual in the East to marry and provide for one's 
self. And their departure did not imply their exclusion from the priv- 
ileges of communion with God, as they might still be under the cov- 
enant with Abraham, since Ishmael had been circumcised, and, at all 
events, were under the broader covenant of Noah. It was only their 
own voluntary rejection of God and his mercy, whether before or after 
their departure, that could cut them off from the promise of eternal 
life. It seems likely that Hagar and Ishmael had so behaved as to 
deserve their dismissal from the sacred home. A bottle of water. This 
was probably a kid-skin bottle, as Hagar could not have carried a goat- 
skin. Its contents were precious in the wilderness, but soon exhausted. 
And the lad. He took the lad and gave him to Hagar. The bread 
and water-skin were on her shoulder ; the lad she held by the hand. 
In the ivilderness of Beer-sheba. It is possible that the departure of 
Hagar occurred after the league with Abimelek and the naming of 
Beer-sheba, though coming in here naturally as the sequel of the birth 
and weaning of Isaac. The wilderness in Scripture is simply the land 
not profitable for cultivation, though fit for pasture to a greater or less 
extent. The wilderness of Beer-sheba is that part of the wilderness 
which was adjacent to Beer-sheba, where probably at this time Abra- 
ham was residing. 15, 16. Laid the lad. Ishmael was now, no doubt, 
thoroughly humbled as well as wearied, and therefore passive under 
his mother's guidance. She led him to a sheltering bush, and caused 
him to lie down in its shade, resigning herself to despair. The artless 
description here is deeply affecting. 

17-21. The fortunes of Ishmael. God cares for the wanderers. 
He hears the voice of the lad, whose sufferings from thirst are greater 
than those of the mother. An angel is sent, who addresses Hagar in 



334 BIRTH OF ISAAC. 

the simple words of encouragement and direction. Hold thy hand 
upon him. Lay thy hand firmly upon him. The former promise 
(Gen. xvi. 10) is renewed to her. God also opened her eyes that 
she saw a well of water, from which the bottle is replenished, and she 
and the lad are recruited for their further journey. It is unnecessary 
to determine how far this opening of the eyes was miraculous. It 
may refer to the cheering of her mind and the sharpening of her 
attention. In Scripture the natural and supernatural are not always 
set over against each other as with us. All events are alike ascribed 
to an ever-watchful Providence, whether they flow from the ordinary 
laws of nature or some higher law of the divine will. 20. God ivas 
with the lad. Ishmael may have been cured of his childish spleen. 
It is possible also his father did not forget him, but sent him a stock 
of cattle with which to begin the pastoral life on his account. He be- 
came an archer. He grew an archer, or multiplied into a tribe of 
archers. 21. Paran (Gen. xiv. 6) lay south of Palestine, and there- 
fore on the way to Egypt, out of which his mother took him a wife. 
The Ishmaelites, therefore, both root and branch, were descended on 
the mother's side from the Egyptians. 

22—34. According to the common law of Hebrew narrative, this 
event took place before some of the circumstances recorded in the 
previous passage ; probably not long after the birth of Isaac. Abime- 
lek, accompanied by Phikol, his commander-in-chief, proposes to form 
a league with Abraham. The reason assigned for this is that God 
was with him in all that he did. Various circumstances concurred to 
produce this conviction in Abimelek. The never-to-be-forgotten ap- 
pearance of God to himself in a dream interposing on behalf of Abra- 
ham, the birth of Isaac, and the consequent certainty of his having an 
heir, and the growing retinue and affluence of one who, some ten years 
before, could lead out a trained band of three hundred and eighteen 
men-at-arms, were amply sufficient to prove that God was the source 
of his strength. Such a man is formidable as a foe, but serviceable as 
an ally. It is the part of sound policy, therefore, to approach him and 
endeavor to prevail upon him to swear by God not to deal falsely 
with him or his. Kin and kith. "We have adopted these words to 
represent the conversational alliterative phrase of the original. They 
correspond tolerably well with the enrip^a and 6Vo/xa, seed and ndme, 
of the Septuagint. Abraham frankly consents to this oath. This is 
evidently a personal covenant, referring to existing circumstances. A 
similar confederacy had been already formed with Aner, Eshkol, and 



GEN. XXI. 335 

Mamre. Abraham was disposed to such alliances, as they contributed 
to peaceful neighborhood. He was not in a condition to make a 
national covenant, though it is a fact that the Philistines were scarcely 
ever wholly subjugated by his descendants. 

25, 26. Abraham takes occasion to remonstrate with Abimelek 
about a well which his people had seized. Wells were extremely 
valuable in Palestine, on account of the long absence of rain between 
the latter or vernal rain ending in March, and the early or autumnal 
rain beginning in November. The digging of a well was therefore a 
matter of the greatest moment, and often gave a certain title to the 
adjacent fields. Hence the many disputes about wells, as the neigh- 
boring Emirs or chieftains were jealous of rights so acquired, and often 
sought to enter by the strong hand on the labors of patient industry. 
27-31. Hence Abraham lays more stress on a public attestation that 
he has dug, and is therefore the owner of this well, than on all the rest 
of the treaty. Seven is the number of sanctity, and therefore of obli- 
gation. This number is accordingly figured in some part of the form 
of confederation ; in the present case, in the seven ewe-lambs which 
Abraham tenders, and Abimelek, in token of consent, accepts at his 
hand. The name of the well is remarkable as an instance of the 
various meanings attached to nearly the same sound. Even in He- 
brew it means the well of seven, or the well of the oath, as the roots 
of seven, and of the verb meaning to swear, have the same radical 
letters. Bir es-Seba means the well of seven or of the lion. 

32-34. Returned unto the land of the Philistines. Beer-sheba was 
on the borders of the land of the Philistines. Going therefore to 
Gerar, they returned into that land. In the transactions with Hagar 
and with Abimelek, the name God is employed, because the relation 
of the Supreme Being with these parties is more general or less inti- 
mate than with the heir of promise. The same name, however, is 
used in reference to Abraham and Sarah, who stand in a twofold rela- 
tion to him as the Eternal Potentate, aud the Author of being and 
blessing. Hence the chapter begins and ends with Jehovah, the 
proper name of God in communion with man. 83, 34. Eshel is a 
field under tillage in the Septuagint, and a tree in Onkelos. It is 
therefore well translated a grove in the A. V., though it is rendered 
the tamarisk by many. The planting of a grove implies that Abra- 
ham now felt he had a resting-place in the land, in consequence of his 
treaty with Abimelek. He calls upon the name of the Lord with the 
significant surname of the God of perpetuity, the eternal, unchange- 



336 ABRAHAM PROVED. 

able God. This marks him as the sure and able performer of his 
promise, as the everlasting vindicator of the faith of treaties, and as 
the infallible source of the believer's rest and peace. Accordingly, 
Abraham sojourned in the land of the Philistines many days. 



XLVIII. ABRAHAM PROVED. — Gen. xxii. 

2. Sn^ja Moriah ; Samaritan, nama ; Septuagint, vil/rjXrj ; Onkelos, 
worship. Some take the word to be a simple derivative, as the Sept. and 
Onk., meaning vision, high, worship. It might mean rebellious. Oth- 
ers regard it as a compound of srj Jah, a name of God, and togya 
shown, tvyva teacher, or $yynfear. 

14. fix-vi Jireh, will provide. 

16. b&W prji^a, dictum, oracle ; r. speak low. 

21. Ma Buz, scoffing. fcaWp Qemuel, gathered of God. 

22. itn Chazo, vision. iL :, n^B Pildash, steelman? wanderer ? &Vt»i 
Jidlaph ; r. trickle, weep. bsipa Bethuel, dwelling of God. 

23. H£:n Ribqah, noose. 

24. rmwn Reumah, exalted, rqu Tebach, slaughter, Dfi3 Gacham, 
brand, uintn Tachash, badger or smZ. nDS?^a Ma'akak ; r. press, crush. 



XXII. 1. And it came to pass after these things, that the 
God tempted Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham. And he 
said, Here I am. 2. And he said, Take now thy son, thine 
only one, whom thou lovest, Isaac, and get thee into the land 
of Moriah ; and offer him there a burnt-offering upon one of 
the hills of which I will tell thee. 3. And Abraham rose up 
early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his 
lads with him, and Isaac his son ; and clave the wood for a 
burnt-offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which 
the God had told him. 

4. On the third day then Abraham lifted up his eyes, and 
saw the place afar off. 5. And Abraham said unto his lads, 
Abide ye here with the ass, and- 1 and the lad will go yonder; 
and we will worship and return unto you. 6. And Abraham 



gen. xxn. 337 

took the wood of the burnt-offering, and laid upon Isaac his 
son ; and he took in his hand the fire and the knife : and they 
went both of them together. 7. And Isaac said unto Abraham 
his father, and he said, My father. And he said, Here am I, 
my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood ; and 
where is the sheep for a burnt-offering. 8. And Abraham said, 
God will provide himself the sheep for a burnt-offering, my 
son : so they went both of them together. 9. And they came 
to the place of which the God had told him ; and Abraham 
built there an altar, and put on the wood ; and he bound Isaac 
his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. 10. And 
Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay 
his son. 

11. And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, 
and said, Abraham, Abraham. And he said, Here am I. 12. 
And he said, Lay not thy hand upon the lad, neither do any- 
thing unto him : for now I know that thou fearest God, and 
hast not withheld thy son, thine only one, from me. 13. And 
Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and, lo, a ram behind, 
caught in the thicket by his horns ; and Abraham went and 
took the ram, and offered him for a burnt-offering instead of 
his son. 14. And Abraham called the name of that place 
Jehovah-jireh : as it is said to-day, In the mount of the Lord 
he is seen. 

15. And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham a second 
time out of heaven, 16. And said, By myself have I sworn, 
saith the Lord, because thou hast done this thing, and hast 
not withheld thy son, thine only one ; 17. That bless, bless 
thee will I, and multiply, multiply will I thy seed, as the stars 
of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore ; and 
thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies. 18. And blessed 
in thy seed shall be all the nations of the earth ; because thou 
hast obeyed my voice. 19. So Abraham returned unto his 
lads ; and they rose up and went together to Beer-sheba ; and 
Abraham dwelt at Beer-sheba. IF 22. 

43 



338 ABRAHAM PEOVED. 

20. And it came to pass after these things, that it was told 
Abraham, saying, Behold Milkah, she also hath borne children 
unto Nahor thy brother. 21. Uz his first-born, and Buz his 
brother, and Kemuel the father of Aram. 22. And Kcsed 
and Hazo and Pildash and Jidlaph and Bethuel. 23. And 
Bcthuel begat Rebekah : these eight bare Milkah to Nahor, 
Abraham's brother. 24. And his concubine, whose name was 
Reumah, she also bare Tebah and Gaham and Tahash and 
Maakah. 5 TOT 23. 



The grand crisis, the crowning event in the history of Abraham, 
now takes place. Every needful preparation has been made for it. 
He has been called to a high and singular destiny. With expectant 
acquiescence he has obeyed the call. By the delay in the fulfilment 
of the promise, he has been taught to believe in the Lord on his simple 
word. Hence, as one born again, he has been taken into covenant 
with God. He has been commanded to walk in holiness, and circum- 
cised in token of his possessing the faith which purifieth the heart. 
He has become the intercessor and the prophet. And he has at length 
become the parent of the child of promise. He has now something of 
unspeakable worth, by which his spiritual character may be thoroughly 
tested. Since the hour in which he believed in the Lord, the features 
of his resemblance to God have been shining more and more through 
the darkness of his fallen nature — freedom of resolve, holiness of walk, 
interposing benevolence, and paternal affection. The last prepares the 
way for the highest point of moral likeness. 

1-19. God tests Abraham's unreserved obedience to his will. The 
God. The true, eternal, and only God, not any tempter to evil, such 
as the serpent or his own thoughts. Tempted Abraham. To tempt is 
originally to try, prove, put to the test. It belongs to the dignity of a 
moral being to be put to a moral probation. Such assaying of the 
will and conscience is worthy both of God the assayer, and of man the 
assayed. 2. Thine only one. The only one born of Sarah, and heir 
of the promise. Whom thou lovest. An only child gathers round it 
all the affections of the parent's heart. The land of Moriah. This 
term, though applied in 2 Chron. iii. 1 to the mount on which the 
temple of Solomon was built, is here the name of a country, containing, 
it may be, a range of mountains or other notable place to which it was 



GEN. XXII. 06\) 

specially appropriated. Its formation and meaning are very doubtful, 
and there is nothing in the context to lend us any aid in its explanation. 
It was evidently known to Abraham before he set out on his present 
journey. It is not to be identified with Moreh in Gen. xii. 6, as the 
two names occur in the same document, and, being different in form, 
they naturally denote different things. Moreh is probably the name 
of a man. Moriah probably refers to some event that had occurred 
in the land, or some characteristic of its inhabitants. If a derivative, 
like Pijn'B poriah, fruitful, it may mean the land of the rebellious, a 
name not inapposite to any district inhabited by the Kenaanites, who 
were disposed to rebellion themselves (Gen. xiv. 4), or met with re- 
bellion from the previous inhabitants. If a* compound of the divine 
name, Jah, whatever be the other element, it affords an interesting 
trace of the manifestation and worship of the true God under the name 
of Jah at some antecedent period. The land of Moriah comprehended 
within its range the population to which Melkizedec ministered as 
priest. 

And offer him for a burnt-offering. Abraham must have felt the 
outward inconsistency between the sacrifice of his son, and the promise 
that in him should his seed be called. But in the triumph of faith he 
accounted that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead. 
On no other principle can the prompt, mute, unquestioning obedience 
of Abraham be explained. Human sacrifice may have been not un- 
known ; but this in no way met the special difficulty of the promise. 
The existence of such a custom might seem to have smoothed away 
the difficulty of a parent offering the sacrifice of a son. But the moral 
difficulty of human sacrifice is not so removed. The only solution 
of this, is that which the case itself actually presents ; namely, the 
divine command. It is evident that the absolute Creator has by right 
entire control over his creatures. He is no doubt bound by his eternal 
rectitude to do no wrong to his moral creatures. But the creature in 
the present case has forfeited the life that was given, by sin. And, 
moreover, we cannot deny that the Almighty may, for a fit moral pur- 
pose, direct the sacrifice of a holy being, who should eventually receive 
a due recompense for such a degree of voluntary obedience. This 
takes away the moral difficulty, either as to God who commands, or 
Abraham who obeys. Without the divine command, it is needless to 
say that it was not lawful for Abraham to slay his son. 

Upon one of the hills of which I will tell thee. This form of expres- 
sion clearly shows that Moriah was not at that time the name of the 



340 ABRAHAM PROVED. 

particular hill on which the sacrifice was to be offered. It was the 
general designation of the country in which was the range of hills on 
one of which the solemn transaction was to take place. 3. And Abra- 
ham rose up early in the morning. There is no hesitation or lingering 
in the patriarch. If this has to be done, let it be done at once. 

4-10. The story is now told with exquisite simplicity. On the third 
day. From Beer-sheba to the Shalem of Melkizedec, near which this 
hill is supposed to have been, is about forty-five miles. If they pro- 
ceeded fifteen miles on the first broken day, twenty on the second, and 
ten on the third, they would come within sight of the place early on 
the third day. Lifted up his eyes. It is scarcely necessary to remind 
the reader of the Bible that this phrase does not imply that the place 
was above his point of view. Lot lifted up his eyes and beheld all 
the vale of Jordan (Gen. xiii. 10), which was considerably below the 
position of the observer. 5. And return unto you. The intimation 
that he and the lad would return, may seem to have rested on a dim 
presentiment that God would restore Isaac to him even if sacrificed. 
But it is more in keeping with the earnestness of the whole transaction 
to regard it as a mere concealment of his purpose from his servants. 
9. And he bound Isaac his son. There is a wonderful pathos in the 
words his son, his father, introduced in the sacred style in this and 
similar narratives. Isaac, when the trying moment came, seems to 
have made no. resistance to his father's will. The binding was merely 
a sacrificial custom. He must have concluded that his father was in 
all this obeying the will of God, though he gave him only a distant 
hint that it was so. 8. Abraham is thoroughly in earnest in the whole 
procedure. 

11-14. At this critical moment the angel of the Lord interposes to 
prevent the actual sacrifice. 12. Lay not thy hand upon the lad. 
Here we have the evidence of a voice from heaven that God does not 
accept of human victims. Man is morally unclean, and therefore unfit 
for a sacrifice. He is, moreover, not in any sense a victim, but a 
doomed culprit, for whom the victim has to be provided. And for a 
typical sacrifice that cannot take away, but only shadow forth, the effi- 
cacious sacrifice, man is neither fit nor necessary. The lamb without 
blemish, that has no penal or protracted suffering, is sufficient for a 
symbol of the real atonement. The intention, therefore, in this case 
was enough, and that was now seen to be real. Now I know that thou 
fearest God. This was known to God antecedent to the event that 
demonstrated it. But the original / have known denotes an eventual 



GEN. XXII. 341 

knowing, a discovering by actual experiment ; and this observable pro- 
bation of Abraham was necessary for the judicial eye of God, who is 
to govern the world, and for the conscience of man, who is to be in- 
structed by practice as well as principle. Thou hast not withheld thy 
son from me. This voluntary surrender of all that was dear to him, 
of all that he could in any sense call his own, forms the keystone of 
Abraham's spiritual experience. He is henceforth a tried man. 

13, 14. A ram behind. For " behind" we have "one "in the Sa- 
maritan, the Septuagint, Onkelos, and some MSS. But neither a 
" single ram " nor a " certain ram " adds anything suitable to the sense. 
We therefore retain the received reading. The voice from heaven 
was heard from behind Abraham, who, on turning back and lifting up 
his eyes, saw the ram. This Abraham took and offered as a substitute 
for Isaac. Both in the intention and in the act he rises to a higher 
resemblance to God. He withholds not his only son in intent, and yet 
in fact he offers a substitute for his son. 14. Jehovah-jireh, the Lord 
will provide, is a deeply significant name. He who provided the ram 
caught in the thicket will provide the really atoning victim of which 
the ram was the type. In this event we can imagine Abraham seeing 
the day of that preeminent seed who should in the fulness of time 
actually take away sin by the sacrifice of himself. In the mount of 
the Lord he will be seen. This proverb remained as a monument of 
this transaction in the time of the sacred writer. The mount of the 
Lord here means the very height of the trial into which he brings his 
saints. There he will certainly appear in due time for their deliver- 
ance. 

15-19. Abraham has arrived at the moral elevation of self-denial 
and resignation to the will of God, and that' in its highest form. 
The angel of the Lord now confirms all his special promises to him 
with an oath, in their amplest terms. An oath with God is a solemn 
pledging of himself in all the unchangeableness of his faithfulness 
and truth, to the fulfilment of his promise. The multitude of his seed 
has a double parallel in the stars of heaven and the sands of the 
ocean. They are to possess the gate of their enemies ; that is, to be 
masters and rulers of their cities and territories. The great promise, 
and blessed in thy seed shall be all the nations of the earth, was first 
given absolutely without reference to his character. Now it is con- 
firmed to him as the man of proof, who is not only accepted as right- 
eous, but proved to be actually righteous after the inward man ; because 
thou hast obeyed my voice (Gen. xxvi. 5). The reflexive form of the 



342 ABRAHAM PEOVED. 

verb signifying to bless is here employed, not to denote emphasis, but 
to intimate that the nations, in being blessed of God, are made willing 
to be so, and therefore bless themselves in Abraham's seed. In hear- 
ing this transcendent blessing repeated on this momentous occasion, 
Abraham truly saw the day of the seed of the woman, the seed of 
Abraham, the Son of man. We contemplate him now with wonder as 
the man of God, manifested by the self-denying obedience of a regen- 
erate nature, intrusted with the dignity of the patriarchate over a holy 
seed, and competent to the worthy discharge of all its spiritual func- 
tions. 

With the nineteenth verse of this chapter may be said to close the 
main revelation of the third Bible given to mankind, to which the 
remainder of this book is only a needful appendix. It includes the 
two former Bibles or revelations, — that of Adam and that of Noah ; 
and it adds the special revelation of Abraham. The two former ap- 
plied directly to the whole race ; the latter directly to Abraham and 
his seed as the medium of an ultimate blessing to the whole race. 
The former revealed the mercy of God offered to all, which was the 
truth immediately necessary to be known ; the latter reveals more 
definitely the seed through whom the blessings of mercy are to be 
conveyed to all, and delineates the leading stage in the spiritual life of 
a man of God. In the person of Abraham is unfolded that spiritual 
process by which the soul is drawn to God. He hears the call of 
God and comes to the decisive act of trusting in the revealed God of 
mercy and truth ; on the ground of which act he is accounted as right- 
eous. He then rises to the successive acts of walking with God, 
covenanting with him, communing and interceding with him, and at 
length withholding nothing that he has or holds dear from him. In 
all this we discern certain primary and essential characteristics of the 
man who is saved through acceptance of the mercy of God proclaimed 
to him in a primeval gospel. Faith in God (ch. xv.), repentance 
towards him (ch. xvi.), and fellowship with him (ch. xviii.), are the 
three great turning-points of the soul's returning life. They are built 
upon the effectual call of God (ch. xii.), and culminate in unreserved 
resignation to him (ch. xxii.). With wonderful facility has the sacred 
record descended in this pattern of spiritual biography from the 
rational and accountable race to the individual and immortal soul, and 
traced the footsteps of its path to God. 

The seed that was threatened to bruise the serpent's head is here 
the eeed that is promised to bless all the families of the earth. The 



GEN. XXIII. 3H 

threefold individuality in the essence of the one eternal Spirit, is adum- 
brated in the three men who visited the patriarch, and their personal 
and practical interest in the salvation of man is manifested, though the 
part appropriated to each in the work of grace be not yet apparent. 

Meanwhile, contemporaneous with Abraham are to be seen men 
(Melkizedec, Abimelek) who live under the covenant of Noah, which 
was not abrogated by that of Abraham, but only helped forward by 
the specialities of the latter over the legal and moral difficulties in the 
way to its final and full accomplishment. That covenant, which was 
simply the expansion and continuation of the Adamic covenant, is still 
in force, and contains within its bosom the Abrahamic covenant in its 
culminating grandeur, as the soul that gives life and motion to its 
otherwise inanimate body. 

20-24. This family notice is inserted as a piece of contemporaneous 
history, to explain and prepare the way for the marriage of Isaac. 
Milkah, she also, in allusion to Sarah, who has borne Isaac. So far as 
we know, they may have been sisters, but they were at all events sisters- 
in-law. The only new persons belonging to our histoy are Bethuel and 
Rebekah. Uz, Aram, and Kesed are interesting, as they show that 
we are in the region of the Shemites, among whom these are ances- 
tral names (Gen. x. 23, xi. 28). Buz may have been the ancestor of 
Elihu (Jer. xxv. 23; Job xxxii. 2). Maakah may have given rise to 
the tribes and land of Maakah (Deut. iii. 14 ; 2 Sam. x. G). The other 
names do not again occur. And his concubine. A concubine was a 
secondary wife, whose position was not considered disreputable in the 
East. Nahor, like Ishmael, had twelve sons, — eight by his wife, and 
four by his concubine. 



XLIX. DEATH OF SARAH. — Gen. xxiii. 

2. 35pN Sh^p, Qirjath-arba', city of Arba. W'nK, Arba',ybm\ 

8. •j'hBS 'Ephron, of the dust, or resembling a calf. iin'X, Tsochar, 
whiteness. 

9. thvyq, Makpelah, doubled. 

XXIII. 1. And the life of Sarah was a hundred and twenty 
and seven years, the years of the life of Sarah. 2. And Sarah 



344 DEATH OF SARAH. 

died in Kirjath-arba, this is Hebron, in the land of Kenaan : 
and Abraham went to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her. 

3. And Abraham rose up from before his dead, and spake 
unto the sons of Hetli, saying, 4. A stranger and a sojourner 
am I with you : give me a possession of a burying-place with 
you, and let me bury my dead out of my sight. 5. And the 
sons of Heth answered Abraham, saying unto him, 6. Hear 
us, my lord : a prince of God art thou among us : in the 
choice of our sepulchres bury thy dead ; none of us shall with- 
hold his sepulchre from thee to bury thy dead. 7. And 
Abraham stood up, and bowed himself to the people of the 
land, to the sons of Heth. 8. And he spake with them, say- 
ing, If it be your mind that I should bury my dead out of my 
sight, hear me, and treat for me with Ephron the son of Zohar. 

9. And he shall give me the cave of Makpelah, which he hath, 
which is in the end of his field : for the full silver shall he 
give it me among you, for a possession of a burying-place. 

10. And Ephron was sitting among the sons of Heth ; and 
Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the ears of the sons 
of Heth, before all that went in at the gate of his city, saying, 

11. Nay, my lord, hear me ; the field give I thee, and the 
cave that is therein, to thee I give it ; in the sight of the sons 
of my people give I it thee : bury thy dead. 12. And Abra- 
ham bowed himself before the people of the land. 13. And 
he spake unto Ephron in the cars of the people of the land, 
saying, But if thou wilt, hear me : I give silver for the field ; 
take it of me, and let me bury my dead there. 14. And Eph- 
ron answered Abraham, saying unto him, 15. My lord, hear 
me : the land is four hundred shekels of silver ; between me 
and thee what is that ? bury, then, thy dead. 16. And Abra- 
ham hearkened unto Ephron ; and Abraham weighed the 
silver, which he had named in the ears of the sons of Heth, 
four hundred shekels of silver current with the merchant. 

17. Then was made sure the field of Ephron, which was in 
Makpelah, which was before Mamre, the field and the cave 



GEN. XXIII. 345 

which was therein, and all the trees which were in the field, 
that were in all its border round about, 18. Unto Abraham 
for a possession. in the sight of the sons of Heth, among all 
that went in at the gate of his city. 19. And after this Abra- 
ham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Makpelah, 
before Mamre, this is Hebron, in the land of Kenaan. 20. 
Then was made sure the field, and the cave that is therein, 
unto Abraham for a possession of a burying-place, from the 
sons of Heth. § 33. 

The death and burial of Sarah are here recorded. This occasions 
the purchase of the field of Makpelah, in the cave of which is her sep- 
ulchre. 

1, 2. Sarah is the only woman whose age is recorded in Scripture. 
She meets with this distinction as the wife of Abraham and the mother 
of the promised seed. A hundred and twenty and seven years, and 
therefore thirty-seven years after the birth of her son. In Kiriaih- 
arba. Arba is called the father of Anak (Jos. xv. 13, xxi. 11) ; that 
is, of the Anakim or Bene Anak, a tall or gigantic tribe (Num. xiii. 
22, xxviii. 33), who were subsequently dispossessed by Kaleb. The 
Anakim were probably Hittites. Abraham had been absent from He- 
bron, which is also called Mamre in this very chapter (v. 17, 19), not 
far from forty years, though he appears to have still kept up a connec- 
tion with it, and had at present a residence in it. During this interval 
the sway of Arba may have commenced. In the land of Kenaafi, in 
contradistinction to Beer-sheba in the land of the Philistines, where we 
last left Abraham. Abraham went to mourn for Sarah, either from 
Beer-sheba or some out-field where he had cattle pasturing. 

3-16. Abraham purchases a burying-ground in the land. The sons 
of Heth. These are the lords of the soil. 4. A stranger and a so- 
journer. He is a stranger, not a Hittite ; a sojourner, a dweller in the 
land, not a mere visitor or traveller. The former explains why he has 
no burial-ground ; the latter, why he asks to purchase one. Bury my 
dead out of my sight. The bodies of those most dear to us decay, and 
must be removed from our sight. Abraham makes his request in the 
most general terms. 5, G. In the somewhat exaggerated style of East- 
ern courtesy, the sons of Heth reply, Hear us, my lord. One speaks 
for all ; hence the change of number. " My lord " is simply equivalent 



316 DEATH OF SARAH 

to our Sir, or the German mein Herr. A prince of God in those 
times of simple faith was a chief notably favored of God, as Abraham 
had been in his call, his deliverance in Egypt, his victory over the 
kings, his intercession for the cities of the vale, and his protection in 
the court of Abimelek. Some of these events were well known to the 
Hittites, as they had occurred while he was residing among them. 

7-0. Abraham now makes a specific offer to purchase the field of 
Makpelah from Ephron the son of Zohar. Treat for me, — deal, use 
your influence with him. Abraham approaches in the most cautious 
manner to the individual with whom he wishes to treat. The cave of 
Makpelah. The burial of the dead in caves, natural and artificial, was 
customary in this Eastern land. The field seems to have been called 
Makpelah (doubled) from the double form of the cave, or the two 
caves perhaps communicating with each other, which it contained. 
For the fall silver. Silver seems to have been the current medium of 
commerce at this time. God was known, and mentioned at an earlier 
period (Gen. ii. 11 ; xiii. 2). A possession of a burying-ground. We 
learn from this passage that property in land had been established at 
this time. Much of the country, however, must have been a common, 
or unappropriated pasture ground. 

10-16. The transaction now comes to be between Abraham and 
Ephron. Was sitting. The sons of Ileth were seated in council, 
and Ephron among them. Abraham seems to have been seated 
also ; for he stood up to make his obeisance and request (v. 7). Be- 
fore all that went in at the gate of his city. The conference was 
public. The place of session for judicial and other public business 
was the gate of the city, which was common ground, and where men 
were constantly going in and out. His city. This implies not that he 
was the king or chief, but simply that he was a respectable citizen. 
If Hebron was the city of the Hittites here intended, its chief at the 
time seems to have been Arba. 11. The field give I thee. Literally, 
have I given thee, — what was resolved upon was regarded as done. 
In the sight of the sons of my people. This was a public declara- 
tion or deed before many witnesses. He offers the field as a gift, 
with the Eastern understanding that the receiver would make an am- 
ple recompense. This mode of dealing had its origin in a genuine 
good-will, that was prepared to gratify the wish of another as soon as it 
was made known, and as far as it was reasonable or practicable. The feel- 
ing seems to have been still somewhat fresh and unaffected in the time 
of Abraham, though it has degenerated into a mere form of courtesy. 



GEN. XXIII. 347 

13. If thou wilt, hear me. The language is abrupt, being spoken 
in the haste of excitement. 7 give silver. " I have given " in the 
original ; that is, I have determined to pay the full price. If the East- 
ern giver was liberal, the receiver was penetrated with an equal sense 
of the obligation conferred, and a like determination to make an 
equivalent return. 15. The land is four hundred shekels. This 
is the familiar style for " the land is worth so much." The shekel is 
here mentioned for the first time. It was originally a weight, not a 
coin. The weight at least was in common use before Abraham. If the 
shekel be nine pennyweights and three grains, the price of the field 
was about forty-five pounds sterling. 16. And Abraham weighed. 
It appears that the money was uncoined silver, as it was weighed. 
Current with the merchant. The Kenaanites, of whom the Hittites 
were a tribe, were among the earliest traders in the world. The 
merchant, as the original imports, is the traveller who brings the wares 
to the purchasers in their own dwellings or towns. To him a fixed 
weight and measure were necessary. 

17-20. The completion of the sale is stated with great formality 
in two verses. No mention is made of any written deed of sale. 
Yet Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob remained in undisturbed possession of 
this burial-ground. Undisputed tenure seems to have been acknowl- 
edged as a title. 19. The burial of Sarah is then simply noted. 
20. The validity of Abraham's title is practically evinced by the 
actual burial of Sarah, and is recited again on account of the impor- 
tance of the fact. 

This chapter is interesting as containing the first record of mourn- 
ing for the dead, of burial, of property in land, of purchase of land, 
of silver as a medium of purchase, and of a standard of weight. 
Mourning for the dead was, no doubt, natural on the first death. 
Burial was a matter of necessity, in order, as Abraham says, to re- 
move the body out of sight, as soon as it was learned by experience 
that it would be devoured by beasts of prey, or become offensive by 
putrefaction. To bury or cover it with earth was a more easy and nat- 
ural process than burning, and was therefore earlier and more general. 
Property in land was introduced where tribes became settled, formed 
towns, and began to practise tillage. Barter was the early mode of 
accommodating each party with the articles he needed or valued. 
This led gradually to the use of the precious metals as a " current " 
medium of exchange — first by weight, and then by coins of a fixed 
weight and known stamp. 



348 MARRIAGE OF ISAAC. 

The burial of Sarah is noted beeause she was the wife of Abraham 
and the mother of the promised seed. The purchase of the field is 
worthy of note, as it is the first property of the chosen race in the 
promised land. Hence these two events are interwoven with the 
sacred narrative of the ways of God with man. 



L. MARRIAGE OF ISAAC. — Gen. xxiv. 

26. *nj3 bow the head. iYjffi^EJjn how the body. 
29. )^h Laban, white. 

XXIY. 1. And Abraham was an old man, far gone in 
days : and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things. 2. 
And Abraham said unto his servant, the elder of his house, 
that ruled over all that he had, Put now thy hand under my 
thigh, 3. And I will make thee swear by the Lord God of 
heaven, and God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife 
unto my son of the daughters of the Kenaanite, among whom 
I dwell. 4. But unto my land and to my kindred shalt thou 
go, and take a wife unto my son Isaac. 5. And the servant 
said unto him, Mayhap the woman will not wish to come after 
me to this land : must I needs bring back thy son unto the 
land whence thou earnest. 6. And Abraham said unto him, 
Beware thou, that thou bring not back my son thither. 7. 
The Lord God of heaven, who took me from my father's house, 
and from the land of my kindred, and who spake unto me, 
and who sware unto me, saying, Unto thy seed will I give this 
land, he shall send his angel before thee, and thou shalt take 
a wife for my son thence. 8. And if the woman do not wish 
to come after thee, then thou shalt be clear from this my oath : 
only my son bring not back thither. 9. And the servant put 
his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master, and sware 
to him concerning this matter. 

10. And the servant took ten camels of the camels of his 



GEN. XXIV. 349 

master, and went, and all the best belonging to his master in 
his hand ; and he arose and went to Aram of the two rivers, 
to the city of Nahor. 11. And he made the camels kneel 
down without the city by a well of water, at the time of even- 
ing, the time when the maidens that draw water come out. 
12. And he said, Lord, God of my master Abraham, open 
the way before me to-day, and show kindness unto my master 
Abraham. 13. Here am I standing by the well of water ; 
and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to 
draw water. 14. And let it come to pass, that the damsel to 
whom 1 shall say, Let down now thy pitcher that I may drink, 
and she shall say, Drink, and also to thy camels will I give 
drink, the same hast thou adjudged to thy servant Isaac ; and 
thereby shall I know that thou hast shown kindness unto my 
master. 

15. And it came to pass that he had not yet done speaking, 
and, lo, Rebekah came forth, who was born to Bethuel, son of 
Milkah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother, and her pitcher 
upon her shoulder. 16. And the damsel was very fair to 
look upon, a virgin, and no man had known her; and she 
went down to the well and filled her pitcher and came up. 
17. And the servant ran to meet her, and said, Let me now 
drink a little water out of thy pitcher. 18. And she said, 
Drink, my lord ; and she hasted, and let down her pitcher 
upon her hand and gave him drink. 19. And she had done 
giving him drink ; and she said, Also for thy camels will I 
draw until they have done drinking. 20. And she hasted, 
and emptied her pitcher into the trough, and ran again unto 
the well to draw, and drew for all his camels. 21. And the 
man wondered at her, holding his peace, to wit, whether the 
Lord had prospered his way or not. 

22. And it came to pass, as the camels had done drinking, 
that the man took a ring of gold, a beka in weight, and two 
bracelets for her hands, ten of gold in weight, 23. And said, 
whose daughter art thou ? tell me now : is there in thy father's 



350 MARRIAGE OF ISAAC. 

house room for us to lodge in ? 24. And she said unto him, 
I am the daughter of Betlmel, the son of Milkah, whom she 
bare unto Nahor. 25. And she said unto him, Both straw 
and provender enough we have, and room to lodge in. 26. 
And the man bowed his head, and worshipped the Lord. 27. 
And he said, Blessed be the Lord, God of my master Abraham, 
who hath not withdrawn his mercy and his truth from my 
master : when I was in the way, the Lord led me to the house 
of my master's brethren. 28. And the damsel ran, and told 
her mother's house according to all these words. 

29. And Rebekah had a brother, and his name was Laban : 
and Laban ran to the man without, unto the well. 80. And 
it came to pass, when lie saw the ring and the bracelets on 
his sister's hands, and when he heard the words of Rebekah 
his sister, saying, Thus spake the man unto me, that he went 
unto the man, and, lo, he was standing by the camels at the 
well. 31. And he said, Come in, thou blessed of the Lord ; 
wherefore standest thou without ? and I have prepared the 
house and a place for the camels. 82. And the man went 
into the house ; and he ungirded the camels, and gave straw 
and provender to the camels, and water to wash his feet, and 
the men's feet that were with him. 83. And he set before 
him to eat : and he said, I will not eat till I have told mine 
errand. And he said, Speak on. 

34. And he said, I am Abraham's servant. 85. And the 
Lord hath blessed my master much, and he has become great : 
and he gave him flocks and herds, and silver and gold, and 
men-servants and maid-servants, and camels and asses. 86. 
And Sarah, my master's wife, bare a son to my master after 
her old age ; and he hath given unto him all that he hath. 
37. And my master made me swear, saying, Thou shalt not 
take a wife to my son of the daughters of the Kenaanite, in 
whose land I dwell. 38. But unto my father's house shalt 
thou go ancl to my kindred, and take a wife for my son. 89. 
And I said unto my master, Mayhap the woman will not come 



GEN. XXIV. 351 

after me. 40. And he said unto me, The Lord before whom 
I walk, will send his angel with thee, and prosper thy way ; 
and thou shalt take a wife for my son from my family, and 
from my father's house. 41. Then shalt thou be clear from 
my oath, when thou goest to my family ; and if they give thee 
not, thou shalt be clear from my oath. 42. And I came this 
day unto the well, and said, Lord, God of my master Abra- 
ham, if now thou do prosper my way which I go, 43. Lo, I 
stand at the well of water, and let it come to pass, that the 
maiden coming forth to draw to whom I say, Let me drink 
now a little water out of thy pitcher, 44. And she says to me, 
Both thou drink, and for thy camels I will draw, the same be 
the woman whom the Lord hath adjudged to my master's son. 
45. I had not yet done speaking in my heart, and, lo, Rebekah 
came forth, and her pitcher on her shoulder ; and she went 
down unto the well and drew ; and I said unto her, Let me 
now drink. 46. And she hasted, and let down her pitcher 
from upon her, and said, Drink, and also to thy camels will I 
give drink ; and I drank, and she made the camels drink also. 
47. And I asked her, and said, whose daughter art thou? 
And she said, the daughter of Bethuel, Nahor's son, whom 
Milkah bare unto him : and I put the ring upon her face, and 
the bracelets upon her hands. 48. And I bowed my head, 
and worshipped the Lord, and blessed the Lord, God of my 
master Abraham, who had led me in the way of truth to take 
the daughter of my master's brother for his son. 49. And 
now, if ye will do kindness and truth to my master, tell me ; 
and I will turn to the right hand or to the left. 50. And 
Laban and Bethuel answered and said, The thing proceedeth 
from the Lord ; we cannot speak unto thee bad or good. 51. 
Behold, Rebekah is before thee ; take her and go, and let her 
be wife to thy master's son, as the Lord hath spoken. 52. And 
it came to pass, when Abraham's servant heard their words, 
he bowed to the earth to the Lord. 53. And the servant 
brought forth jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment, 



352 MARRIAGE OE ISAAC. 

and gave to Rebekah; and precious tilings gave lie to ber 
brother and to her mother. 54. And they ate and drank, he 
and the men that were with him, and tarried all night ; and 
they rose up in the morning, and he said, Send me away unto 
my master. 55. And her brother and her mother said, Let 
the damsel abide with us a few days, at the least ten ; after 
that she shall go. 56. And he said unto them, Hinder me 
not, seeing the Lord hath prospered my way ; send me away, 
that I may go to my master. 57. And they said, We will call 
the damsel and inquire at her mouth. 58. And they called 
Rebekah, and said unto her, Wilt thou go with this man ? 
And she said, I will go. 59. And they sent away Rebekah 
their sister, and her nurse, and Abraham's servant and his 
men. 60. And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto her, Our 
sister, be thou mother to thousands of myriads, and let thy 
seed possess the gate of those that hate them. 61. And Re- 
bekah arose, and her damsels, and they rode upon the camels, 
and went after the man : and the servant took Rebekah and 
went his way. 

62. And Isaac went from the way to Beer-lahai-roi ; for he 
was dwelling in the land of the south. 63. And Isaac came 
out to meditate in the field at eventide : and he lifted up his 
eyes and saw, and behold the camels were coming. 64. And 
Rebekah lifted up her eyes and saw Isaac, and she lighted off 
the camel. 65. And she said unto the servant, Who is this 
man that walketh in the field to meet us ? And the servant 
said, This is my master. And she took the veil and covered 
herself. 66. And the servant told Isaac all things that he had 
done. 67. And Isaac brought her unto Sarah his mother's 
tent, and took Rebekah and she became his wife, and he loved 
her ; and Isaac was comforted after his mother. 

In this circumstantial account of the marriage of Isaac, we have a 
beautiful picture of ancient manners in the East, the living original of 
which the present customs of that cradle of mankind are a striking copy. 



GEN. XXIV. 353 

1-9. Abraham binds the chief servant of his house to seek a wife 
for his son Isaac among his kindred. 1. The first movement in this 
matrimonial arrangement is on the part of the father, who does not 
consult his son, but the chief manager of his household affairs. Abra- 
ham is now a hundred and forty years of age, and Sarah has been 
three years dead. Isaac seems to have been of an easy, sedate turn of 
mind, and was not in circumstances to choose a partner for life such 
as his father would approve. The promise of a numerous offspring 
by the son of Sarah is before the mind of the patriarch. All these 
considerations impel him to look out for a suitable wife for his son, and 
the blessing of the Lord encourages him to proceed. 2. The person 
whom Abraham intrusted with this delicate task has a threefold des- 
ignation. First, he is his servant or minister. Secondly, he is the 
old man, ancient, or elder of his house. Here the term elder ap- 
proaches its official signification. In early times age was taken into 
account, along with good conduct and aptitude, as the qualification for 
services of trust. Thirdly, he ruled over all that he had. He was 
therefore a master as well as a minister. If this be Eliezer of Da- 
mascus (Gen. xv. 2), he was the steward of Abraham before the birth 
of Ishmael fifty-four years ago. Under my thigh. The thigh was the 
seat of generative power, and the region of sacramental consecration, 
and to put the hand under the thigh was to acknowledge and pledge 
obedience to him who requires the oath. 

3, 4. The appeal is to God as Jehovah, God of heaven and God of 
the earth. Jehovah is the personal name of God, which is properly 
used by those who are in fellowship with him. He is the Author of all 
being, and therefore of heaven and earth; and hence the arbiter of 
the destiny of the oath-taker, both in spiritual and material things, 
both in this life and in that which is to come. Not of the daughters of 
the Kenaanite, a race sinking fast into ungodliness and unrighteous- 
ness, doomed to extirpation, to whom the promised seed is to succeed. 
The kindred of Abraham were Shemites, Hebrews, and still retained 
some knowledge of the true God, and some reverence for him and his 
will. 5-8. The experienced elder of Abraham's house does not wish 
to bind himself by an oath to that which it may be impossible to fulfil. 
He makes the supposition of the unwillingness of the bride whom he 
may select, and obtains a quittance from his oath in that case. The 
patriarch, however, charges him not to bring his son back to the land 
of his fathers, and expresses his confidence in the God of promise, 
that he will direct his servant to the suitable wife for his son. His 
45 



354 MARRIAGE OF ISAAC. 

angel (Gen xvi. 7). This is the Lord in the function of an angel or 
messenger opening the way for the servant of Abraham. He does 
not make any appearance to the servant, though a superintending 
Providence is strikingly displayed in the whole affair. 9. The faithful 
elder now understands and takes the required oath. 

10-14. He proceeds on his journey. Took ten camels. These are 
designed for conducting the bride and her companions home to his 
master. All the best belonging to his master in his hand. This refers 
to the presents for the bride and her friends, and to the accommoda- 
tions for her comfort on the journey. Aram-Naharaim. Aram was 
an extensive area, embracing not only the country west of the Frat 
and north of Palestine, but the northern part of Mesopotamia, or the 
country between the Frat and the Dijlah. The latter region is for 
the sake of distinction called Aram of the two rivers. It did not in- 
clude the southern part of Mesopotamia, which was called Shinar 
(Gen. xi. 2), and probably extended only to the Chaboras, Khabour. 
The part of it in which Haran was situated was called Padan-aram 
(Gen. xxviii. 2). The city of Nahor. It is probable that Nahor ac- 
companied his father, Terah, to Haran (Gen. xi. 31). If not, he must 
have followed him very soon. 

11. Made the camels kneel, for repose. The time when the maidens 
that draw water come out. The evening was the cool part of the 
day. The simple maidens of primitive days attended personally to 
domestic affairs. The experienced steward might therefore naturally 
expect to see the high-born damsels of the land at the public well, 
which had probably given rise to the neighboring town. 12-14. 
The prayer of the aged servant is conceived in a spirit of earnest, 
childlike faith. The matter in hand is of extraordinary importance. 
A wife is to be found for the heir of promise. This was a special con- 
cern of God, and so the single-hearted follower of Abraham makes it. 
He takes upon himself the choice of a maiden among those that come 
to draw, to whom he will make the request of a particular act of kind- 
ness to a stranger, and he prays God that the intended bride may be 
known by a ready compliance with his request. The three qualifica- 
tions, then, in the mind of the venerable domestic for a bride for his 
master's son, are a pleasing exterior, a kindly disposition, and the 
approval of God. 

15-21. The answer is immediate and direct. He had not yet done 
speaking, when the answer came. A damsel very fair to look upon, 
satisfying the taste of the old man, appears. He thereupon prefers 



GEN. XXIV. 355 

his request, with which she promptly complies. The old man waits in 
wonder and silence to see if the Lord's approval will follow. 

22-28. Rebekah makes herself known in reply to his inquiries. A 
ring of gold. The single ring was worn in the nose, the side cartilage 
of which was pierced for the purpose. This is a custom of the East. 
A beka was half a shekel, somewhat less than a quarter of an ounce. 
Ten of gold in weight. Ten bekas would be about two ounces and a 
quarter. If shekels, however, be understood, the weight will be double. 
These were merely a reward for her kindness and courtesy to a stran- 
ger. Two questions are now asked by the stranger, — the one relating 
to her kindred, and the other to the means and the inclination they 
had to entertain a stranger, when inns were not yet in existence. She 
announces herself to be the daughter of his master's nephew, and as- 
sures him of the requisite accommodation. 

26, 27. Bowed his head and worshipped. The bowing of the head 
and of the body are here combined to indicate the aged servant's deep 
thankfulness for the guidance of the Lord. 27. The utterance of the 
mouth accompanies the external gesture of reverence. 28. Her 
mother's house; those who were in the department of the females. 
We may imagine with what excitement and alacrity Rebekah would 
communicate the extraordinary intelligence. 

29-33. The reception of Abraham's servant. Laban now comes 
on the scene. He is ready to run with his sister to find the man, and 
invite him, as a matter of course, to his father's house. 30. When he 
saw the ring. The presents to his sister assure him that this is the 
envoy of some man of wealth and position. 31. Thou t blessed of the 
Lord. The name of Jehovah was evidently not unfamiliar to Laban's 
ears. He calls this stranger " blessed of Jehovah," on account of his 
language, demeanor, and manifest prosperity. The knowledge and 
worship of the living God, the God of truth and mercy, was still re- 
tained in the family of Nahor. 32, 33. Being warmly invited, the 
man enters the house. And he ungirded the camels. Laban is the 
actor here, and in the following duties of hospitality. The men's feet 
that were with him. It comes out here, incidentally, as it was reason- 
able to infer from the number of camels, that Abraham's steward had a 
retinue of servants with him. The crowning act of an Eastern recep- 
tion is the presenting of food. But the faithful servant must deliver 
his message before partaking of the friendly meal. 

34-49. The servant's errand told. He explains his business in a 
singularly artless and pleasing manner. He then leaves the matter in 



356 MAKRIAGE OF ISAAC. 

the hands of the family. 36. Given unto him all that he hath. His 
children by Hagar and Keturah were dismissed with portions during 
his life, and the main bulk of his property was conveyed to Isaac. 

50-61. The servant's return with Eebekah. 50, 51. So plain an 
interposition of Providence admits of no refusal on the part of those 
who revere the Lord. Bethuel now appears as a concurring party. 
Laban, as the full brother of Rebekah, has a voice in the disposal of 
her hand ; but the father only has the power to ratify the contract. 
52, 53. The patriarch's servant first bows in acknowledgment to the 
Lord, who had now manifested his approval of the choice he had made, 
and then proceeds to distribute costly gifts to the bride, and to her 
brother and mother. 54. Now at length the thankful guest partakes 
of the fare set before him along with his entertainers, and after the 
night's repose requests to be dismissed. 55. A few days ; perhaps a 
week or ten days. The mother and brother naturally plead for a 
little time to prepare for parting with Rebekah. They could not 
expect the servant, however, to stay months. 57, 58. Inquire at her 
mouth. This is the only free choice in the matter that seems to be 
given to Rebekah. Her consent may have been modestly indicated, 
before her family ratified the contract. It is plain, however, that it 
was thought proper that the parents should receive and decide upon a 
proposal of marriage. The extent to which the maiden's inclinations 
would be consulted would depend very much on the custom of the 
country, and the intelligence and good feeling of the parents. In later 
times the custom became very arbitrary. Rebekah's decision shows 
that she concurred in the consent of her relatives. 59-61. And her 
nurse. Her name, we learn afterwards (Gen. xxxv. 8), was Debo- 
rah. The nurse accompanied the bride as her confidential adviser 
and faithful attendant, and died in her service ; a beautiful trait of an- 
cient manners. The blessing consists in a boundless offspring, and the 
upper hand over their enemies. These are indicative of a thin popu- 
lation, and a comparatively rude state of society. And her damsels. 
We here learn, again, incidentally, that Rebekah had more female 
attendants than her nurse. 

62-67. Isaac receives his bride. He had been at Beer-lahai-roi, the 
scene of the interview of Hagar with the angel of the Lord, — a spot 
calculated to awaken thoughts of an overruling Providence. To medi- 
tate. This is a characteristic of Isaac's retiring, contemplative mood. 
Abraham was the active, authoritative father ; Isaac was the passive, 
submissive son. To meditate was to hold converse with his own 



GEN. XXV. 1-11. &57 

thoughts, to ponder on the import of that never-to-be-forgotten scene 
when he was laid on the altar by a father's hand, and a ram caught in 
the thicket became his substitute, and to pour out his soul unto the 
God of his salvation. In this hour of his grave reflection comes his 
destined bride with her faithful escort upon his view. 64-67. Re- 
bekah lights off the camel. Doubtless the conversation by the way 
with the elder of Abraham's house had made her aware of their ap- 
proach to the residence of her future husband. She concludes at once 
that this must be he, and, alighting, asks if it be. Gn being informed 
by the servant that this is his young master, she puts on the veil, which 
covers the head, and hangs down gracefully both behind and before. 
The aged servant reports the success of his mission, and presents 
Rebekah. Isaac brings his cousin's daughter into the apartments 
formerly occupied by his mother, and accepts her as his wife. The 
formalities of the interview, and of her presentation to Abraham as 
his daughter-in-law, are all untold. And he loved her. This is the 
first mention of the social affections. It comes in probably because 
Isaac had not before seen his bride, and now felt his heart drawn 
towards her, when she was presented to his view. All things were 
evidently done in the fear of God, as became those who were to be 
the progenitors of the seed of promise. We have here a description 
of the primeval marriage. It is a simple taking of a woman for a wife 
before all witnesses, and with suitable feelings and expression of rev- 
erence towards God, and of desire for his blessing. It is a pure and 
holy relation, reaching back into the realms of innocence, and fit to be 
the emblem of the humble, confiding, affectionate union between the 
Lord and his people. 



LI. THE DEATH OF ABRAHAM. — Gen. xxv. 1-11. 

1. Hj-JBfs Qeturah, incense. 

2. )*%] Zimran, celebrated in song. V^pn Joqshan, fowler, ffb 
M.edan, judge. "£*ra Midian, one who measures. J&&RS* Jishbaq, he who 
leaves. MB Shuach, pit. 

3. ttiksfo Letushim, hammered, sharpened. WiSi/b Leummim, peo- 
ples. 

4. htf<5>, c Ephah, darkness. *fib3J f Epher, dust. W3» 'Abida, 
father of knowledge. t&$*% Eldaah, knowing ? 



358 THE DEATH OF ABRAHAM. 

XXY. 1. And Abraham added and took a wife, and her 
name was Keturah. 2. And she bare him Zimran and Jok- 
shan and Medan and Midian and Ishbak and Shuah. 3. 
And Jokshan begat Sbeba and Dedan. And the sons of De- 
dan were Asshurim and Letushim and Leummim. 4. And 
the sons of Midian, Ephah and Epher and Henok and Abida 
and Eldaah. All these were the children of Keturah. 5. And 
Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac. 6. And unto the 
sons of the concubines, which Abraham had, gave Abraham 
gifts, and sent them away from Isaac his son, while he yet lived 
eastward, unto the land of the East. 

7. And these are the days of the years of Abraham's life, 
which he lived, a hundred and seventy and five years. 8. And 
Abraham expired, and died in a happy old age, old and full ; 
and was gathered to his peoples. 9. And Isaac and Ishmael, 
his sons, buried him in the cave of Makpelah, in the field of 
Ephron, the son of Zohar the Hittite, which is before Mamre. 
10. The field which Abraham purchased of the sons of Heth, 
there was buried Abraham, and Sarah his wife. 11. And it 
came to pass after the death of Abraham, that God blessed his 
son Isaac : and Isaac dwelt at Beer-lahai-roi. IT 25. 



Another family is born to Abraham by Keturah, and portioned off, 
after which he dies and is buried. 

1—6. Added and took a wife. According to the laws of Hebrew 
composition, this event may have taken place before that recorded in 
the close of the previous chapter. Of this law we have several exam- 
ples in this very chapter. And there is nothing contrary to the cus- 
toms of that period in adding wife to wife. We cannot say that 
Abraham was hindered from taking Keturah in the lifetime of Sarah 
by any moral feeling which would not also have hindered him from 
taking Hagar. It has been also noticed that Keturah is called a con- 
cubine, which is thought to imply that the proper wife was still living ; 
and that Abraham was a very old man at the death of Sarah. But, 
on the other hand, it is to be remembered that these sons were in any 
case born after the birth of Isaac, and therefore after Abraham was 






GEN. XXV. 1-11. 359 

renewed in vital powers. If this renewal of vigor remained after the 
birth of Isaac, it may have continued some time after the death of 
Sarah, whom he survived thirty-eight years. His abstinence from any 
concubine until Sarah gave him Hagar is against his taking any other 
during Sarah's lifetime. His loneliness on the death of Sarah may 
have prompted him to seek a companion of his old age. And if this 
step was delayed till Isaac was married, and therefore separated from 
him, an additional motive would impel him in the same direction. He 
was not bound to raise this wife to the full rights of a proper wife, 
even though Sarah were dead. And six sons might be born to him 
twenty-five years before his death. And if Hagar and Ishmael were 
dismissed when he was about fifteen years old, so might Keturah when 
her youngest was twenty or twenty-five. We are not warranted, then, 
still less compelled, to place Abraham's second marriage before the 
death of Sarah, or even the marriage of Isaac. It seems to appear in 
the narrative in the order of time. 

2. The endeavors to ascertain the tribes that descended from these 
six sons of Keturah have not been very successful. Zimran has been 
compared with Za/3pdfx ( Ptol. vi. 7. 5), situated west of Mecca on the 
Red Sea. Jokshan with* the Kaer<rav itch (Ptol. vi. 7. G), and with the 
tribe Jakish among the Himyarites in South Arabia. Medan with 
MoSudva on the east coast of the Aelanitic Gulf. Midian is found in two 
localities west of the Aelanitic Gulf and east of the Salt Sea. Among 
the former, Moses afterwards found refuge. The latter are probably 
east of Abraham's residence. Ishbak is compared with Shobek, a 
place in Idumaea. Shuah probably belongs to the same region. He 
may be the ancestor of Bildad the Shuhite (Job ii. 11). Of these, 
Midian alone appears to be ascertained. The others may have been 
absorbed in that congeries of tribes, the Arabs. 

3, 4. Sheba, Dedan, and Asshurim are recurring names ( Gen. x. 7, 
22, 28), describing other tribes of Arabs equally unknown. The three 
sons of Dedan may be traced in the tribe Asir of the south of Hejaz, 
the Beni Leits of Hejaz, and the Beni Lam of the borders of Mesopo- 
tamia. 4. Of the sons of Midian, Epha is mentioned in Is. lx. 6 along 
with Midian. Epher is compared with Beni Ghifar in Hejaz, Henok 
with Hanakye north of Medinah, Abida with the Abide, and Eldaah 
with the Wadaa. These conjectures of Burckhardt are chiefly useful 
in showing that similar names are still existing in the country. There 
are here six sons of Abraham, seven grandsons, and three great-grand- 
sons, making sixteen descendants by Keturah. If there were any 



360 THE DEATH OF ABRAHAM. 

daughters, they are not noticed. It is not customary to mention 
females, unless they are connected with leading historical characters. 
These descendants of Abraham and Keturah are the third contribution 
of Palgites to the Joktanites, who constituted the original element of 
the Arabs, the descendants of Lot and Ishmael having preceded them. 
All these branches of the Arab nation are descended from Heber. 

5, 6. Abraham makes Isaac his heir (Gen. xxiv. 36). He gives 
portions to the sons of the concubines during his lifetime, and sends 
them away to the East. Ishmael had been portioned off long before 
(Gen. xxi. 14). The East is a general name for Arabia, which 
stretched away to the southeast and east of the point where Abraham 
resided in the south of Palestine. The northern part of Arabia, which 
lay due east of Palestine, was formerly more fertile and populous than 
now. The sons of Keturah were probably dismissed before they had 
any children. Their notable descendants, according to custom, are added 
here before they are dismissed from the main line of the narrative. 

7-11. The death of Abraham. His years were a hundred and 
seventy-five. He survived Sarah thirty-eight years, and Isaac's mar- 
riage thirty-five. His grandfather lived a hundred and forty-eight 
years, his father two hundred and five, his son Isaac a hundred and 
eighty, and his grandson Jacob a hundred and forty-seven ; so that his 
years were the full average of that period. 8. Expired — breathed his 
last. In a happy old age, in external and internal blessedness (Gen. 
xv. 15). Old and fall — having attained to the standard length of life 
in his days, and being satisfied with this life, so that he was ready and 
willing to depart. Gathered to his peoples (Gen. xv. 15). To be 
gathered is not to cease to exist, but to continue existing in another 
sphere. His peoples, the departed families, from whom he is descended, 
are still in being in another not less real world. This, and the like 
expression in the passage quoted, give the first fact in the history of 
the soul after death, as the burial is the first step in that of the body. 

9, 10. Isaac and Ishmael, in brotherly cooperation. Ishmael was 
the eldest son, dwelt in the presence of all his brethren, and had a 
special blessing. The sons of Keturah were far away in the East, very 
young, and had no particular blessing. Ishmael is therefore properly 
associated with Isaac in paying the last offices to their deceased father. 
The burying-place had been prepared before. Its purchase is here re- 
hearsed with great precision as a testimony of the fact. This burial- 
ground is an earnest of the promised possession. 

11. This verse is an appendix to the history of Abraham, stating 



GEN. XXV. 1-11. 361 

that the blessing of God, which he had enjoyed till his death, now- 
descended upon his son Isaac, who abode at Beer-lahai-roi. The gen- 
eral name God is here employed, because the blessing of God denotes 
the material and temporal prosperity which had attended Abraham, in 
comparison with other men of his day. Of the spiritual and eternal 
blessings connected with Jehovah, the proper name of the Author of 
being and blessing, we shall hear in due time. 

The section now completed contains the seventh of the documents 
commencing with the formula, " these are the generations." It begins 
in the eleventh chapter and ends in the twenty-fifth, and therefore 
contains a greater number of chapters and amount of matter than the 
whole of the preceding narrative. This is as it should be in a record 
of the ways of God with man. In the former sections, things anterior 
and external to man come out into the foreground ; they lie at the 
basis of his being, his mental and moral birth. In the present section, 
things internal to man and flowing from him are brought into view. 
These are coincident with the growth of his spiritual nature. The 
latter are no less momentous than the former for the true and full 
development of his faculties and capacities. 

In the former sections the absolute being of Goo is assumed ; the 
beginning of the heavens and the earth asserted. The reconstruction 
of skies and land and the creation of a new series of plants and ani- 
mals are recorded. This new creation is completed by the creating of 
man in the image of God and after his likeness. The placing of man 
in a garden of fruit trees prepared for his sustenance and gratification ; 
the primeval command, with its first lessons in language, physics, ethics, 
and theology ; the second lesson in speaking when the animals are 
named ; and the separation of man into the male and the female, are 
followed by the institutions of wedlock and the Sabbath, the fountain- 
heads of sociality with man and God, the foreshadows of the second 
and first tables of the law. The fcil of man in the second lesson of 
ethics ; the sentence of the Judge, containing in its very bosom the 
intimation of mercy ; the act of fratricide, followed by the general cor- 
ruption of the whole race ; the notices of Sheth, of calling on the name 
of Jehovah begun at the birth of Enosh, of Henok who walked with 
God, and of Noah who found grace in his sight ; the flood sweeping 
away the corruption of man while saving righteous Noah ; and the 
confusion of tongues, defeating the ambition of man, while preparing 
for the replenishing of the earth and the liberties of men — these com- 



362 THE DEATH OF ABRAHAM. 

plete the chain of prominent facts that are to be seen standing in the 
background of man's history. These are all moments, potent elements 
in the memory of man, foundation-stones of his history and philosophy. 
They cannot be surmounted or ignored without absurdity or crimi- 
nality. 

In the section now completed the sacred writer descends from the 
general to the special, from the distant to the near, from the class to 
the individual. He dissects the soul of a man, and discloses to our 
view the whole process of the spiritual life from the new-born babe to 
the perfect man. Out of the womb of that restless selfish race, from 
whom nothing is willingly restrained which they have imagined to do, 
comes forth Abram, with all the lineaments of their moral image upon 
him. The Lord calls him to himself, his mercy, his blessing, and his 
service. He obeys the call. That is the moment of his new birth. 
The acceptance of the divine call is the tangible fact that evinces a new 
nature. Henceforth he is a disciple, having yet much to learn before 
he becomes a master, in the school of heaven. From this time forward 
the spiritual predominates in Abram ; very little of the carnal appears. 
Two sides of his mental character present themselves in alternate 
passages, which may be called the physical and the metaphysical, 
or the things of the body and the things of the soul. In the former 
only the carnal or old corrupt nature sometimes appears ; in the lat- 
ter, the new nature advances from stage to stage of spiritual growth 
unto perfection. His entrance into the land of promise is followed 
by his descent into Egypt, his generous forbearance in parting 
with Lot, his valorous conduct in rescuing him, and his dignified 
demeanor towards Melkizedec and the king of Sodom. The second 
stage of its spiritual development now presents itself to our view ; 
on receiving the promise, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, thy 
exceeding great reward, he believes in the Lord, who counts it to 
him for righteousness, and enters into covenant with him. This is the 
first fruit of the new birth, and it is followed by the birth of Ishmael. 
On hearing the authoritative announcement, I am God Almighty ; 
walk before me and be perfect, he performs the first act of that obedi- 
ence which is the keystone of repentance, by receiving the sign of 
covenant, and proceeds to the high functions of holding communion and 
making intercession with God. These spiritual acts are followed by 
the destruction of the cities of the Jordan vale, with the preservation 
of Lot, the sojourning in Gerar, the birth of Isaac, and the league with 
Abimelek. The last great act of the spiritual life of Abraham is the 



GEN. XXV. 1-11. 363 

surrender of his only son to the will of God, and this again is followed 
by the death and burial of Sarah, the marriage of Isaac, and the 
second marriage of Abraham. 

It is manifest that every movement in the physical and ethical his- 
tory of Abraham is fraught with instruction of the deepest interest for 
the heirs of immortality. The leading points in spiritual experience 
are here laid before us. The susceptibilities and activities of a soul 
born of the Spirit are unfolded to our view. These are lessons for 
eternity. Every descendant of Abraham, every collateral branch of 
his family, every contemporary eye or ear- witness, might have profited 
in the things of eternity by all this precious treasury of spiritual knowl- 
edge. Many of the Gentiles still had, and all might have had, a 
knowledge of the covenant with Noah, and a share in its promised 
blessings. This would not have precluded, but only promoted, the 
mission of Abraham to be the father of the seed in whom all the fami- 
lies of man should effectually be blessed. And in the meantime it 
would have caused to be circulated to the ends of the earth that new 
revelation of spiritual experience which was displayed in the life of 
Abraham for the perfecting of the saints. 



SECTION XL— ISAAC. 

LII. HISTORY OF ISHMAEL. — Gen. xxv. 12-18. 

13. rvaa Nebajoth, heights. *rr$ Qedar, black, "i^JpiK Adbeel, 
miracle of God t Dtontt Mibsam, sweet odor. 

14. SEttfo Mishma', hearing, tvavn Dumah, silence, W8a Massa, 
burden. 

15. "Tin Chadar, chamber ; or Tin Chadad, sharpness ; fctia'W Tema. 
I^ Jetur, enclosure, akin to Tiia a waZ/, and m^a a .wa#. lE^SS Na- 
phish, breathing. •"ra'ij5 Qedemah, before, eastward 

16. "i^n cowrtf, village, town. 

12. And these are the generations of Iskmael, Abraham's 
son, whom Hagar the Mizrite, Sarah's handmaid, bare unto 
Abraham. 13. And these are the names of the sons of Ish- 
mael, by their names, after their generations : the firstborn of 
Ishmael, Nebaioth, and Kedar and Abdeel and Mibsam, 14. 
And Mishma and Dumah and Massa, 15. Hadar and Tema, 
Itur, Naphish, and Kedemah. 16. These are the sons of Ish- 
mael, and these their names, in their towns, and in their 
castles : twelve princes after their nations. 17. And these are 
the years of the life of Ishmael, a hundred and thirty and seven 
years : and he expired, and died, and was gathered unto his 
peoples. 18. And they dwelt from Havilah unto Shur, that is 
before Mizraim, as thou goest to Asshur : in the preseuce of 
all his brethren he had fallen. 6 TTTTT 26. 



According to custom, before the history of the principal line is taken 
up, that of the collateral branch is briefly given. Thus Cain's history 
is closed before Sheth's is commenced j Japheth and Ham are before 



GEN. XXV. 12-18. 365 

Shem ; Haran and Nahor before Abram. And so the sons of Ketu- 
rah are first dismissed from the pages of history, and then Ishmael. 

12. The present passage begins with the formula, "and these are 
the generations," and forms the eighth document so commencing. The 
appearance of a document consisting of seven verses is clearly against 
the supposition that each of these documents is due to a different au- 
thor. The phrase points to a change of subject, not of author. 

13-16. Nebaioth (Is. lx. 7) is preserved in the Nabataei inhabiting 
Arabia Petraea, and extending far toward the East. Kedar (Is. xxi. 
17) appears in the Cedrei of Pliny (H. N. 5. 12) who dwell east of 
Petraea. Adbeel Mibsam, and Mlshma are otherwise unknown. The 
last is connected with the Mcuoai/xo/ets of Ptol. (v. 7. 21). Dumah (Is. 
xxi. 11) is probably Aov/u&9a (Ptol. vi. 19. 7) and Domata (Plin. H. 
N. 6. 32) and Dumat el-Jendel in Nejd and the Syrian desert. Massa 
may be preserved in the Maa-avol of Ptolemy (v. 19. 2), northeast of 
Duma. Hadar is Hadad in 1 Chron. i. 30, the Sam., Onk., perhaps 
the Sept., and many cod. It is supposed to be Xarr^vta (Polyb.), 
Attene, and to lie between Oman and Bahrein. Tenia (Job vi. 19 ; 
Is. xxi. 14 ; Jer. xxv. 23) lay on the borders of Nejd and the Syrian 
desert. Jetur remains in Ituraea, Jedur, northeast of the sea of Galilee. 
Some suppose the Druses descended from him. NapM'sh (1 Chron. 
vi. 19, 22) lay in the same quarter. Kedemah is otherwise unknown. 
16. In their towns and in their castles. The former are unwalled col- 
lections of houses or perhaps tents ; the latter, fortified keeps or en- 
campments. Twelve princes, one for each tribe, descended from his 
twelve sons. 

17, 18. Ishmael dies at the age of a hundred and thirty-seven. 
From Havilah, on the borders of Arabia Petraea and Felix. Unto 
Shur, on the borders of Arabia and Egypt. This was the original seat 
of the Ishmaelites, from which they wandered far into Arabia. In the 
presence of all his brethren — the descendants of Abraham by Sarah 
and Keturah, those of Lot, and the Egyptians who were his brethren 
or near kindred by his mother and wife. He had fallen into the lot of 
his inheritance. Thus was fulfilled the prediction uttered before his 
birth (Gen. xvi. 12). 



366 BIRTH OF ESAU AND JACOB. 



Lffl. BIRTH OF ESAU AND JACOB. — Gen. xxv. 19-34. 

20. "pis Paddan, ploughed field ; r. cut, plough. 

25. itos Esav, hairy, or made. 

26. lap?" 1 Jaaqob, he shall take the heel. 

27. Dn perfect, peaceful, plain. The epithet refers to disposition, 
and contrasts the comparatively civilized character of Jacob with the 
rude temper of Esau. 

30. Qinx Edom, red. 



19. And these are the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son : 
Abraham begat Isaac. 20. And Isaac was the son of forty 
years when he took Rebekah, daughter of Betlmel the Aram- 
ite of Paddan-aram, sister of Laban the Aramite, to wife. 21. 
And Isaac entreated the Lord in regard to his wife ; for she 
was barren : and the Lord was entreated of him, and Rebekah 
his wife conceived. 22. And the children struggled together 
within her : and she said, If it be so, why am I thus ? And 
she went to inquire of the Lord. 23. And the Lord said unto 
her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two folks shall be sep- 
arated from thy bowels ; and folk shall be stronger than folk, 
and the elder shall serve the younger. 24. And her days to 
be delivered were fulfilled : and, lo, twins were in her womb. 
25. And the first came out red, all of him like a hair mantle ; 
and they called his name Esau. 26. And after that came out 
his brother, and his hand holding Esau's heel ; and he called 
his name Jacob : and Isaac was the son of sixty years when 
she bare them. 

27. And the boys grew: and Esau was a man cunning in 
the chase, a man of the field ; and Jacob was a plain man, 
dwelling in tents. 28. And Isaac loved Esau, because his ven- 
ison was in his mouth ; and Rebekah loved Jacob. 29. And 
Jacob sod pottage : and Esau went in from the field, and he 
was faint. 30. And Esau said to Jacob, Let me feed now on 
that red, red ; for I am faint. Therefore was his name called 



GEN. XXV. 19-34. 367 

Edom. 31. And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright. 
32. And Esau said, Behold, I am going to die : and for what 
is this birthright to me ? 33. And Jacob said, Swear to me 
this day ; and he sware unto him ; and he sold his birthright 
unto Jacob. 34. And Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of 
lentiles ; and he ate and drank, and rose up and went his way ; 
and Esau despised his birthright. 1* 27. 



The ninth document here begins with the usual phrase, and contin- 
ues to the end of the thirty-fifth chapter. It contains the history of 
the second of the three patriarchs, or rather, indeed, as the opening 
phrase intimates, of the generations of Isaac ; that is, of his son Jacob. 
Isaac himself makes little figure in the sacred history. Born when his 
mother was ninety, and his father a hundred years of age, he is of a 
sedate, contemplative, and yielding disposition. Consenting to be laid 
on the altar as a sacrifice to God, he had the stamp of submission early 
and deeply impressed on his soul. His life corresponds with these 
antecedents. Hence, in the spiritual aspect of his character he was 
the man of patience, of acquiescence, of susceptibility, of obedience. 
His qualities were those of the son, as Abraham's were those of the 
father. He carried out, but did not initiate ; he followed, but did not lead ; 
he continued, but did not commence. Accordingly, the docile and 
patient side of the saintly character is now to be presented to our view. 

10-26. The birth of Esau and Jacob. 20. TJie son of forty years. 
Hence we learn that Isaac was married the third year after his 
mother's death, when Abraham was in his hundred and fortieth year. 
Bethucl the Aramaean. As Bethuel was a descendant of Arpakshad, 
not of Aram, he is here designated, not by his descent, but by his 
adopted country Aram. By descent he was a Kasdi or Kaldee. 21. 
Sarah was barren for at least thirty years ; Rebekah for nineteen. 
This drew forth the prayer of Isaac in regard to his wife. The heir 
of promise was to be a child of prayer, and accordingly when the 
prayer ascended the fruit of the womb was given. 22, 23. Rebekah 
had unwonted sensations connected with her pregnancy. She said to 
herself, If it be so, if I have conceived seed, why am I this, why this 
strange struggle within me ? In the artlessness of her faith she goes 
to the Lord for an explanation. We are not informed in what way 
she consulted God, or how he replied. The expression, she went to 



368 BIRTH OF ESAU AND JACOB. 

inquire of the Lord, implies that there was some place of worship and 
communion with God by prayer. We are not to suppose that she 
went to Abraham, or any other prophet, if such were then at hand, 
when we have no intimation of this in the text. Her communication 
with the Lord seems to have been direct. This passage conveys to us 
the intimation that there was now a fixed mode and perhaps place of 
inquiring at the Lord. The Lord answers the mother of the promised 
seed. Two children are in her womb, the parents of two nations, dif- 
fering in their dispositions and destinies. The one is to be stronger 
than the other. The order of nature is to be reversed in them ; for 
the elder will serve the younger. Their struggles in the womb 
are a prelude to their future history. 

24—26. The twins are in due time born. The difference is manifest 
in the outward appearance. The first is red and hairy. These quali- 
ties indicate a passionate and precocious nature. He is called Esau 
the hairy, or the made up, the prematurely developed. His brother is 
like other children. An act takes place in the very birth foreshadow- 
ing their future history. The second has a hold of his brother's heel, 
as if he would trip him up from his very birth. Hence he is called 
Jacob the wrestler, who takes hold by the heel. 

27-34. The brothers prove to be different in disposition and habit. 
The rough fiery Esau takes to the field, and becomes skilled in all 
modes of catching game. Jacob is of a homely, peaceful, orderly turn, 
dwelling in tents and gathering round him the means and appliances 
of a quiet social life. The children please their parents according as 
they supply what is wanting in themselves. Isaac, himself so sedate, 
loves the wild, wandering hunter, because he supplies him with pleas- 
ures which his own quiet habits do not reach. Rebekah becomes at- 
tached to the gentle, industrious shepherd, who satisfies those social and 
spiritual tendencies in which she is more dependent than Isaac. Esau 
is destructive of game ; Jacob is constructive of cattle. 

29-34. A characteristic incident in their early life is attended with 
very important consequences. Jacob sod pottage. He has become a 
sage in the practical comforts of life. Esau leaves the field for the 
tent, exhausted with fatigue. The sight and smell of Jacob's savory 
dish of lentile soup are very tempting to a hungry man. Let me feed 
now on that red, red broth. He does not know how to name it. The 
lentile is common in the country, and forms a cheap and palatable dish 
of a reddish brown color, with which bread seems to have been eaten. 
The two brothers were not congenial. They would therefore act each 



GEN. XXV. 19-34. 369 

independently of the other, and provide each for himself. Esau was 
no doubt occasionally rude and hasty. Hence a selfish habit would 
grow up and gather strength. He was probably wont to supply him- 
self with such fare as suited his palate, and might have done so on this 
occasion without any delay. But the fine flavor and high color of the 
mess, which Jacob was preparing for himself, takes his fancy, and 
nothing will do but the red red. Jacob obviously regarded this as a 
rude and selfish intrusion on his privacy and property, in keeping with 
similar encounters that may have taken place between the brothers. 

It is here added, therefore was his name called Edom, that is, Red. 
The origin of surnames, or second names for the same person or place, 
is a matter of some moment in the fair interpretation of an ancient 
document. It is sometimes hastily assumed that the same name can 
only owe its application to one occasion ; and hence a record of a sec- 
ond occasion on which it was applied is regarded as a discrepancy. 
But the error lies in the interpreter, not in the author. The propriety 
of a particular name may be marked by two or more totally different 
circumstances, and its application renewed on each of these occasions. 
Even an imaginary cause may be assigned for a name, and may serve 
to originate or renew its application. The two brothers now before us 
afford very striking illustrations of the general principle. It is pretty 
certain that Esau would receive the secondary name of Edom, which 
ultimately became primary in point of use, from the red complexion of 
skin, even from his birth. But the exclamation " that red red," ut- 
tered on the occasion of a very important crisis in his history, renewed 
the name, and perhaps tended to make it take the place of Esau in the 
history of his race. Jacob, too, the holder of the heel, received this 
name from a circumstance occurring at his birth. But the buying of 
the birthright and the gaining of the blessing, were two occasions in 
his subsequent life on which he merited the title of the supplanter or 
the holder by the heel (Gen. xxvii. 36). These instances prepare us 
to expect other examples of the same name being applied to the same 
object, for different reasons on different occasions. 

31. Sell me this day thy birthright. This brings to light a new 
cause of variance between the brothers. Jacob was no doubt aware 
of the prediction communicated to his mother, that the elder should 
serve the younger. A quiet man like him would not otherwise have 
thought of reversing the order of nature and custom. In after times 
the right of primogeniture consisted in a double portion of the father's 
goods (Deut. xxi. 17), and a certain rank as the patriarch and priest 
47 



370 EVENTS OF ISAAC'S LIFE. 

of the house on the death of the father. But in the case of Isaac there 
was the far higher dignity of chief of the chosen family and heir of the 
promised blessing, with all the immediate and ultimate temporal and 
eternal benefits therein included. Knowing all this, Jacob is willing 
to purchase the birthright, as the most peaceful way of bringing about 
that supremacy which was destined for him. He is therefore cautious 
and prudent, even conciliating in his proposal. He availed himself of 
a weak moment to accomplish by consent what was to come. Yet he 
lays no necessity on Esau, but leaves him to Ids own free choice. We 
must therefore beware of blaming him for endeavoring to win his 
brother's concurrence in a thing that was already settled in the purpose 
of God. His chief error lay in attempting to anticipate the arrange- 
ments of Providence. 32. Esau is strangely ready to dispose of his 
birthright for a trivial present gratification. He might have obtained 
other means of recruiting nature equally suitable, but he will sacrifice 
anything for the desire of the moment. Any higher import of 
the right he was prepared to sell so cheap seems to have escaped 
his view, if it had ever occurred to his mind. 33. Jacob, however, is 
deeply in earnest. He will bring this matter within the range of 
heavenly influence. He will have God solemnly invoked as a witness 
of the transfer. Even this does not startle Esau. There is not a 
word about the price. It is plain that Esau's thoughts were altogether 
on " the morsel of meat." He swears unto Jacob. 34. He then ate 
and drank, and rose up and went his way, as the sacred writer graphi- 
cally describes his reckless course. Most truly did he despise his 
birthright. His mind did not rise to higher or further things. Such 
was the boyhood of these wondrous twins. 



LIV. EVENTS OF ISAAC'S LIFE.— Gen. xxvi. 

5. rflWBE charge, ordinance. ft*S73 command, special order, ph 
decree, statute, engraven on stone or metal, rnin law, doctrine, sys- 
tem of moral truth. 

10. pU3 *Eseq, strife. 

21. HSwb Sitnah, opposition. 

22. rinrn Rechoboth, room. 
26. wnx Achuzzath, possession. 
33. TM"2'0 Shib'ah, seven ; oath. 



GEN. XX VI. 371 

34. n"n/i"r Jekudith, praised. ^XS Beeri, of a well, n^aba 
Basemath, sweet smell. *j'^x Elon, oak. 



XXVI. 1. And there was a famine in the land, beside the 
first famine that was in the days of Abraham : and Isaac went 
unto Abimelek, king of the Philistines, unto Gerar. 2. And 
the Lord appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into 
Mizraim : dwell in the land of which I shall tell thee. 3. So- 
journ in this land, and I will be with thee and bless thee ; for 
unto thee and unto thy seed will I give all these lands, and I 
will establish the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father. 
4. And I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and give 
unto thy seed all these lands ; and blessed in thy seed shall be 
all the nations of the earth : 5. Because Abraham hearkened 
to my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my stat- 
utes, and my laws. 

6. And Isaac dwelt in Gerar. 7. And the men of the place 
asked about his wife, and he said, She is my sister : for he 
feared to say, My wife, lest the men of the place kill me for 
Hebekah : because she was fair to look upon. 8. And it came 
to pass, that he was there a long time, and Abimelek, king of 
the Philistines, looked through the window, and saw, and be- 
hold Isaac sporting with Rebekah his wife. 9. And Abimelek 
called Isaac, and said, Behold, surely she is thy wife ; and how 
saidst thou, She is my sister ? And Isaac said unto him, Be- 
cause I said, Lest I die for her. 10. And Abimelek said, What 
is this thou hast done to us ? Lightly might one of the people 
have lain with thy wife, and thou shouldest have brought 
guiltiness upon us. 11. And Abimelek commanded all the 
people, saying, He that toucheth this man or his wife shall 
surely die. 

12. And Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same 
year a hundred-fold : and the Lord blessed him. 13. And 
the man grew, and went on, and grew until he became very 
great. 14. And he had possession of flocks, and possession 



372 EVENTS OF ISAAC'S LIFE. 

of herds, and great store of servants : and the Philistines 
envied him. 15. And all the wells which his father's servants 
had digged in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines 
had stopped them and filled them with dust. And Abimelek 
said unto Isaac, Go from us, for thou art much mightier than we. 

17. And Isaac went thence, and pitched in the valley of 
Gerar, and dwelt there. 18. And Isaac again digged the 
wells of water, which they had digged in the clays of Abraham 
his father, and the Philistines stopped them after the death of 
Abraham : and he called them names after the names which 
his father had called them. 19. And Isaac's servants digged 
in the valley, and found there a well of spring water. 20. 
And the herdmen of Gerar strove with Isaac's herdmen, saying, 
The water is ours : and he called the name of the well Esek, 
because they strove with him. 21. And they digged another 
well ; and strove not for that also ; and he called the name of 
it Sitnah. 22. And he removed thence, and digged another 
well ; and they strove not for it ; and he called the name of it 
Rehoboth, and said, For now the Lord hath made room for us, 
and we shall be fruitful in the land. 

23. And he went up thence to Beer-sheba. 24. And the 
LoRd appeared to him in that night, and said, I am the God 
of Abraham thy father : fear not, for I am with thee, and will 
bless thee, and multiply thy seed for the sake of Abraham my 
servant. 25. And he builded there an altar, and called on the 
name of the Lord, and pitched there his tent ; and there Isaac's 
servants digged a well. 

26. And Abimelek went to him from Gerar, and Ahuzzath 
his friend, and Phikol the captain of his host. 27. And Isaac 
said unto them, Why are ye come to me, and ye hated me, 
and sent me away from you ? 28. And they said, We saw 
certainly that the Lord was with thee : and we said, Let there 
be now an oath betwixt us, between us and thee, and let us 
make a covenant with thee. 29. That thou wilt do us no 
hurt, as we have not touched thee, and as we have done unto 



GEN. XXVI. 373 

thee only good, and sent thee away in peace ; thou art now 
blessed of the Lord. 30. And he made them a feast, and they 
ate and drank. 31. And they rose up early in the morning, 
and sware one to another : and Isaac sent them away, and 
they went from him in peace. 32. And it came to pass in that 
day, that Isaac's servants came and told him concerning the 
well which they had digged ; and they said unto him, We have 
found water. 33. And he called it Sheba. Therefore the 
name of the city is Beer-sheba unto this day. § 34. 

34. And Esau was the son of forty years, and he took a 
wife, Judith, daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath, 
daughter of Elon the Hittite ; 35. And they were a grief of 
mind to Isaac and to Rebekah. § 35. 



This chapter presents the leading events in the quiet life of Isaac. 
It is probable that Abraham was now dead. In that case, Esau and 
Jacob would be at least fifteen years of age when the following event 
occurred. 

1-5. Renewal of the promise to Isaac. A famine in the land. We 
left Isaac, after the death of Abraham, at Beer-lahai-roi (Gen. xxv. 
11). The preceding events have only brought us up to the same 
point of time. This well was in the land of the south (xxiv. 62). 
The present famine is distinguished from that which occurred in the 
time of Abraham (xii. 10). The interval between them is at least 
a hundred years. The author of this, the ninth document, is, we find, 
acquainted with the seventh document ; and the famine to which he 
refers is among the earliest events recorded in it. There is no reason 
to doubt, then, that he has the whole history of Abraham before his 
mind. Unto Abimelek unto Gerar. The Abimelek with whom Abra- 
ham had intercourse about eighty years before may have been the 
father of the present sovereign. Both Abimelek and Phikol seem to 
have been official names. Gerar (x. 19) was apparently on the brook 
of Mizraim (Numb, xxxiv. 5), the Wady el-Arish, or the Wady el- 
Khubarah, a northern affluent of the former, or in the interval between 
them. It is on the way to Egypt, and is the southern city of the 
Philistines, who probably came from Egypt (x. 14). Isaac was draw- 
ing towards Egypt, when he came to Gerar. 



374 EVENTS OF ISAAC'S LIFE. 

2-5. Isaac is now the heir, and therefore the holder, of the promise. 
Hence the Lord enters into communication with him. First, the 
present difficulty is met. Go not down into Mizraim, the land of com, 
even when other lands were barren. Dwell in the land of which I 
shall tell thee. This reminds us of the message to Abraham (xii. 1). 
The land here spoken of refers to " all these lands " mentioned in the 
following verses. Sojourn in this land: turn aside for the present, and 
take up thy temporary abode here. Next, the promise to Abraham is 
renewed with some variety of expression. / will be with thee (xxi. 
22), a notable and comprehensive promise, afterwards embodied in the 
name Immanuel, God with us. Unto thee and unto thy seed. This 
was fulfilled to his seed in due time. All these lands, now parcelled 
out among several tribes. And blessed in thy seed (xii. 3, xxii. 18). 
This is the great, universal promise to the whole human race through 
the seed of Abraham, twice explicitly announced to that patriarch. 
All the nations. In constancy of purpose the Lord contemplates, even 
in the special covenant with Abraham, the gathering in of the nations 
under the covenant with Noah and with Adam ( Gen. ix. 9 ; Hos. vi. 
7). Because Abraham hearkened to my voice, in all the great mo- 
ments of his life, especially in the last act of proceeding on the divine 
command to offer Isaac himself. Abraham, by the faith which flows 
from the new birth, was united with the Lord, his shield and exceed- 
ing great reward (xv. 1), with God Almighty, who quickened and 
strengthened him to walk before him and be perfect (xvii. 1). The 
Lord his righteousness worketh in him, and his merit is reflected and 
reproduced in him (xxii. 16, 18). Hence the Lord reminds Isaac of 
the oath which he had heard at least fifty years before confirming the 
promise, and of the declaration then made that this oath of confirma- 
tion was sworn because Abraham had obeyed the voice of God. How 
deeply these words would penetrate into the soul of Isaac, the intended 
victim of that solemn day ! But Abraham's obedience was displayed 
in all the acts of his new life. He kept the charge of God, the 
special commission he had given him ; his commandments, his express 
or occasional orders ; his statutes, his stated prescriptions, graven on 
stone ; his laws, the great doctrines of moral obligation. This is that 
unreserved obedience which flows from a living faith, and withstands 
the temptations of the flesh. 

6-11. Rebekah preserved from dishonor in Gerar. Gerar was 
probably a commercial town trading with Egypt, and therefore Isaac's 
wants during the famine are here supplied. " The men of the place " 



GEN. XXVI. 375 

were struck with the appearance of Rebekah, " because she was fair." 
Isaac, in answer to their inquiries, pretends that she is his sister, feel- 
ing that his life was in peril, if she was known to be his wife. Re- 
bekah was at this time not less than thirty-five years married, and had 
two sons upwards of fifteen years old. She was still however in the 
prime of life, and her sons were probably engaged in pastoral and 
other field pursuits. From the compact between Abraham and Sarah 
(xx. 13), and from this case of Isaac about eighty years after, it 
appears that this was a ready pretence with married people among 
strangers in those times of social insecurity. 8—11. Abimelek ob- 
serves Isaac sporting with Rebekah as only husband and wife should, 
constrains him to confess that she is his wife, charges him with the 
impropriety of his conduct, and commands his people to refrain from 
harming either of them on pain of death. We see how insecure a 
female's honor was in those days, if she was in a strange land, and had 
not a band of men to keep back the hand of violence. We perceive 
also that God mercifully protects his chosen ones from the perils which 
they bring upon themselves by the vain self-reliance and wicked policy 
of the old corrupt nature. This remnant of the old man we find in 
the believers of old, as in those of the present time, though it be dif- 
ferent and far less excusable in its recent manifestations. 

12-16. The growing prosperity of Isaac. And Isaac sowed in that 
land. This does not imply a fixed property in the soil, but only an 
annual tenancy. A hundred-fold. The rates of increase vary from 
thirty to a hundred. Sixty-fold is very good, and was not unusual in 
Palestine. A hundred-fold was rare, and only in spots of extraordi- 
nary fertility. Babylonia, however, yielded two hundred and even 
three hundred-fold, according to Herodotus (I. 193). Thus the Lord 
began to " bless him." 13, 14. The amazing growth of the stranger's 
wealth in flocks and herds and servants awakens the envy of the inhab- 
itants. 15. The digging of the well was an enterprise of great interest 
in rural affairs. It conferred a sort of ownership on the digger, espe- 
cially in a country where water was precious. And in a primeval 
state of society the well was the scene of youthful maidens drawing 
water for domestic use, and of young men and sometimes maidens 
watering the bleating flocks and lowing herds, and therefore the gath- 
ering centre of settled life. Hence the envious Philistines were afraid 
that from a sojourner he would go on to be a settler, and acquire 
rights of property. They accordingly took the most effectual means 
of making his abiding place uncomfortable, when they stopped up the 



376 EVENTS OF ISAAC'S LIFE. 

wells. 16. At length the sovereign advised a separation, if he did not 
enjoin the departure of Isaac. 

17-22. Isaac retires, and sets about the digging of wells. He re- 
treats from Gerar and its suburbs, and takes up his abode in the valley, 
or wady of Gerar. These wadys are the hollows in which brooks flow, 
and therefore the well- watered and fertile parts of the country. 18. 
He digs again the old wells, and calls them by the old names. 19-22. 
He commences the digging of new ones. For the first the herdmen 
of Gerar strive, claiming the water as their property. Isaac yields. 
He digs another ; they strive, and he again yields. He now removes 
apparently into a distinct region, and digs a third well, for which there 
is no contest. This he calls Rehoboth, room, — a name which appears 
to be preserved in Wady er-Ruhaibeh, near which is Wady esh-Shu- 
tein, corresponding to Sitnah. For now the Lord hath made room for 
us. Isaac's homely realizing faith in a present and presiding Lord 
here comes out. 

23-25. Isaac now proceeds to Beer-sheba. Went up. It was an as- 
cent from Wady er-Ruhaibeh to Beer-sheba ; which was near the water- 
shed between the Mediterranean and the Salt Sea. In that night, — the 
night after his arrival, in a dream or vision. I am the God of Abra- 
ham thy father. Isaac is again and again reminded of the relation in 
which his father stood to God. That relation still subsists ; for Abra- 
ham still lives with God, and is far nearer to him than he could be on 
earth. " The God of Abraham " is another name for Jehovah. Fear 
not, as he had said to Abraham after his victory over the four kings 
(xv. 1). Then follow the reasons for courage: I, with thee, blessing 
thee, multiplying thy seed ; a reassurance of three parts of the promise 
involving all the rest. Then comes the instructive reason for this 
assurance, — for the sake of Abraham my servant. 25. An altar, — 
the first on record erected by Isaac. Called on the name of the Lord, 
— engaged in the solemn and public invocation of Jehovah (iv. 26, 
xii. 8). His tent there. It was hallowed ground to his father (xxi. 
33), and now to himself. Digged a well, and thereby took possession 
of the soil at least for a time. We hear of this well again in the next 
passage. 

26-33. The treaty with Abimelek. This is an interview similar to 
that which Abraham had with the king of Gerar ; and its object is a 
renewal of the former league between the parties. Besides Phikol, 
the commander-in-chief, he is now accompanied by Ahuzzath, his privy 
counsellor. 27-29. Isaac upbraids him with his unkindness in sending 



GEN. XXVII. 377 

him away, and his inconsistency in again seeking a conference with 
him. We clearly saw. His prosperity was such as to be a manifest 
token of the Lord's favor. Hence they desired the security of a treaty 
with him by an oath of execration on the transgressor. Do us no 
hurt. The covenant is one-sided, as expressed by Abimelek. As we 
have not touched thee. This implies the other side of the covenant. 
Thou art now blessed of Jehovah. This explains the one-sidedness of 
the covenant. Isaac needed no guarantee from them, as the Lord was 
with him. Abimelek is familiar with the use of the name Jehovah. 
30, 31. Isaac hospitably entertains and lodges the royal party, and on 
the morrow, after having sworn to the treaty, parts with them in peace. 
32, 33. On the same day Isaac's servants report concerning the well 
they had digged (v. 25) that they had found water. This well he 
calls Sheba, an oath, and hence the town is called Beer-sheba, the 
well of the oath. Now the writer was aware that this place had re- 
ceived the same name on a former occasion (xxi. 31). But a second 
well has now been dug in like circumstances in the same locality. 
This gives occasion for a new application of the name in the memories 
of the people. This is another illustration of the principle explained 
at xxv. 30. Two wells still exist at this place to attest the correctness 
of the record. 

34, 35. Esau at forty years of age forms matrimonial connections 
with the Hittites. Heth was the second son of Kenaan, and had settled 
in the hills about Hebron. Esau had got acquainted with this tribe in 
his hunting expeditions. From their names we learn that they spoke 
the same language with himself. They belonged to a family far gone 
in transgression and apostasy from God. The two wives chosen from 
such a stock were a source of great grief to the parents of Esau. The 
choice manifested his tolerance at least of the carnal, and his indiffer- 
ence to the spiritual. 



LV. ISAAC BLESSING HIS SONS. — Gen. xxvii. 

XXVII. 1. And it came to pass that Isaac was old, and 
his eyes were dim in seeing ; and he called Esau his elder son, 
and said unto him, My son. And he said unto him, Here am 
1. 2. And he said, Behold now, I am old ; I know not the 
day of my death. 8. And now take now thy weapons, thy 
48 



378 ISAAC BLESSING HIS SONS. 

quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field and hunt for me 
venison. 4. And make me savory meat, such as I love, and 
bring to me, and let me eat, that my soul may bless thee be- 
fore I die. 

5. And Rebekah was listening when Isaac spake to Esau his 
son : and Esau went to the field to hunt for venison to bring. 
6. And Rebekah said unto Jacob her son, saying, Behold, 1 
heard thy father speaking to Esau thy brother, saying, 7. Bring 
me venison, and make me savory meat, and let me eat ; and 
I shall bless thee before the Lord before I die. 8. And now, 
my son, hearken to my voice, according to that which I com- 
mand thee. 9. Go now to the flock, and fetch me thence two 
good kids of the goats ; and I will make them savory meat for 
thy father, such as he loveth. 10. And thou shalt bring it to 
thy father, and he shall eat, that he may bless thee before he 
die. 11. And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, Behold, 
Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I a smooth man. 12. 
Mayhap my father will feel me, and I shall be in his eyes as a 
deceiver ; and I shall bring upon me a curse and not a bless- 
ing. 13. And his mother said unto him, Upon me be thy 
curse, my son ; only hearken to my voice, and go fetch me. 

14. And he went and fetched and brought to his mother ; 
and his mother made savory meat, such as his father loved. 
15. And Rebekah took goodly garments of Esau her elder son, 
which were with her in the house, and put them upon Jacob 
her younger son. 16. And the skins of the kids of the goats 
put she upon his hands, and upon the smooth of his neck. 17. 
And she gave the savory meat and the bread which she had 
made into the hand of Jacob her son. 18. And he went unto 
his father and said, My father. And he said, Here am I ; 
who art thou, my son ? 19. And Jacob said unto his father, 
I am Esau, thy first-born : I have done as thou spakest to me ; 
arise, now, sit and eat of my venison, that thy soul may bless 
me. 20. And Isaac said unto his son, How is this thou hast 
hastened to find., my son ? And he said, Because the Lord thy 



GEN. XXVII. 379 

God prospered me. 21. And Isaac said unto Jacob, Come 
near now, and let me feel thee, my son, whether thou be my 
very son Esau or not. 22. And Jacob went near unto Isaac 
his father, and he felt him : and he said, The voice is the 
voice of Jacob, and the hands are the hands of Esau. 23. 
And he discerned him not, because his hands were hairy as 
Esau his brother's hands : and he blessed him. 24. And he 
said, Art thou my very son Esau ? And he said, I am. 25. 
And he said, Bring near to me and let me eat of my son's 
venison, that my soul may bless thee : and he brought near 
to him, and he ate : and he brought him wine, and he drank. 
28. And Isaac his father said unto him, Come near now, and 
kiss me, my son. 27. And he came near, and kissed him ; 
and he smelled the smell of his raiment, and blessed him, and 
said, See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which 
the Lord hath blessed. 28. And the God give thee of the dew 
of heaven, and of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn 
and wine. 29. Let peoples serve thee, and nations bow down 
to thee ; be lord of thy brethren, and let thy mother's sons bow 
down to thee; he that curseth thee be cursed, and he that 
blesseth thee be blessed. 

30. And it came to pass when Isaac had ende'd the blessing 
of Jacob, and Jacob was in the act of coming out from the 
presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother was come 
in from his hunting. 31. And he also made savory meat, and 
brought to his father ; and he said unto his father, Let my 
father arise and eat of his son's venison, that thy soul may 
bless me. 32. And Isaac his father said unto him, Who art 
thou ? And he said, I am thy son, thy first-born, Esau. 33. 
And Isaac trembled with an exceeding great trembling, and 
said, Who, then, is he that hath hunted venison, and brought 
me, and I ate of all before thou earnest, and blessed him ? 
Yea, blessed he shall be. 34. When Esau heard the words 
of his father, then he cried with an exceeding great and bitter 
cry ; and he said unto his father, Bless me, me also, my father. 



380 ISAAC BLESSING HIS SON. 

85. And he said, Thy brother hath come with deceit and taken 
thy blessing. 36. And he said, Is it that his name is called 
Jacob, and he supplanted me these two times ? my birthright 
he had taken, and, behold, now he hath taken my blessing. 
And he said, Hast thou not in reserve for me a blessing ? 37. 
And Isaac answered and said unto Esau, Behold, thy lord I 
have made him, and all his brethren have I given him for 
servants ; and with corn and wine have I sustained him : and 
to thee now what shall I do, my son ? 38. And Esau said 
unto his father, Hast thou but one blessing, my father ? Bless 
me, also me, my father. And Esau lifted up his voice and 
wept. 39. And Isaac his father answered and said unto him, 
Behold, away from the fatness of the earth shall be thy dwell- 
ing, and from the dew of heaven from above. 40. And on thy 
sword shalt thou live, and thy brother shalt thou serve : and 
it shall come to pass when thou prevailest, that thou shalt 
break his yoke from thy neck. 41. And Esau hated Jacob 
because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him : and 
Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father 
draw nigh, and I will slay Jacob, my brother. 

42. And the words of Esau, her elder son, were told to 
Rebekah: and she sent and called Jacob, her younger son, 
and said unto him, Behold, Esau thy brother comforteth him- 
self concerning thee, purposing to slay thee. 43. And now, 
my son, hearken to my voice : and arise, flee thou to Laban 
my brother to Haran. 44. And tarry with him a few days, 
until thy brother's fury turn away ; 45. Until thy brother's 
anger turn from thee, and he forget that which thou hast 
done to him : then will I send and fetch thee hence : why 
should I be bereaved even of you both in one day ? 46. And 
Rebekah said to Isaac, I am weary of my life on account of 
the daughters of Heth : if Jacob take a wife of the daughters 
of Heth, such as these of the daughters of the land, what 
good is life to me ? 



GEN. XXVIL 381 

The life of Isaac falls into three periods. During the first seventy- 
five years he is contemporary with his father. For sixty-one years 
more his son Jacob remains under the paternal roof. The remaining 
forty-four years are passed in the retirement of old age. The chapter 
before us narrates the last solemn acts of the middle period of his life. 

1-4. Isaac was old. Joseph was in his thirtieth year when he stood 
before Pharaoh, and therefore thirty-nine when Jacob came down to 
Egypt at the age of one hundred and thirty. When Joseph was born, 
therefore, Jacob was ninety-one, and he had sojourned fourteen years 
in Padan-aram. Hence Jacob's flight to Laban took place when he 
was seventy-seven, and therefore in the one hundred and thirty-sixth 
year of Isaac. His eyes were dim. Weakness and even loss of sight 
is more frequent in Palestine than with us. His elder son. Isaac 
had not yet come to the conclusion that Jacob was heir of the promise. 
The communication from the Lord to Rebekah concerning her yet 
unborn sons in the form in which it is handed down to us merely de- 
termines that the elder shall serve the younger. This fact Isaac seems 
to have thought might not imply the transferrence of the birthright ; 
and if he was aware of the transaction between Esau and Jacob, he 
may not have regarded it as valid. Hence he makes arrangements 
for bestowing the paternal benediction on Esau, his elder son, whom 
he also loves. / am old. At the age of one hundred and thirty-six, 
and with failing sight, he felt that life was uncertain. 3, 4. In the 
calmness of determination he directs Esau to prepare savory meat, 
such as he loved, that he may have his vigor renewed and his spirits 
revived for the solemn business of bestowing that blessing, which he 
held to be fraught with more than ordinary benefits. 

5—13. Rebekah forms a plan for diverting the blessing from Esau 
to Jacob. 5-7. She was within hearing when the infirm Isaac gave 
his orders, and communicates the news to Jacob. 8-10. Rebekah has 
no scruples about primogeniture. Her feelings prompt her to take 
measures, without waiting to consider whether they are justifiable or 
not, for securing to Jacob that blessing which she has settled in her 
own mind to be destined for him. She thinks it necessary to interfere 
that this end may not fail, of being accomplished. 11-13. Jacob 
views the matter more coolly, and starts a difficulty. He may be 
found out to be a deceiver, and bring his father's curse upon him. 
Rebekah, anticipating no such issue, undertakes to bear the curse that 
jshe conceived would never come. Only let him obey. 

14-29. The plan is successful. 14-17. Jacob now, without further 



382 ISAAC BLESSING HIS SONS. 

objection, obeys his mother. She clothes him in Esau's raiment, and 
puts the skins of the kids on his hands and his neck. The camel-goat 
affords a hair which bears a great resemblance to that of natural 
growth, and is used as a substitute for it. 18-20. Now begins the 
strange interview between the father and the son. Who art thou, my 
son ? The voice of Jacob was somewhat constrained. He goes, how- 
ever, deliberately through the process of deceiving his father. Arise, 
now, sit and eat. Isaac was reclining on his couch, in the feebleness 
of advancing years. Sitting was the posture convenient for eating. 
The Lord thy God prospered me. This is the bold reply to Isaac's 
expression of surprise at the haste with which the dainty fare had been 
prepared. 21-23. The bewildered father now puts Jacob to a severer 
test. He feels him, but discerns him not. The ear notes a difference, 
but the hand feels the hairy skin resembling Esau's ; the eyes give no 
testimony. After this the result is summarily stated in a single sen- 
tence, though the particulars are yet to be given. 24, 25. Art thou 
my very son Esau f A lurking doubt puts the definite question, and 
receives a decisive answer. Isaac then calls for the repast and par- 
takes. 

26-29. He gives the kiss of paternal affection, and pronounces the 
benediction. It contains, first, a fertile soil. Of the dew of heaven. 
An abundant measure of this was especially precious in a country 
where the rain is confined to two seasons of the year. Of the fatness 
of the earth ; a proportion of this to match and render available the 
dew of heaven. Corn and wine, the substantial products, implying all 
the rest. Second, a numerous and powerful offspring. Let peoples 
serve thee, — preeminence among the nations. Be lord of thy brethren, 
— preeminence among his kindred. Isaac does not seem to have grasped 
the full meaning of the prediction, " The elder shall serve the younger." 
Third, Prosperity, temporal and spiritual. He that curseth thee be 
cursed, and he that blesseth thee be blessed. This is the only part of 
the blessing that directly comprises spiritual things ; and even this is 
of a peculiar form. It is to be recollected that it was Isaac's intention 
to bless Esau, and he may have felt that Esau, after all, was not to be 
the progenitor of the holy seed. Hence the form of expression is 
vague enough to apply to temporal things, and yet sufficiently compre- 
hensive to embrace the infliction of the ban of sin, and the diffusion of 
the blessing of salvation by means of the holy seed. 

30-41. Esau's blessing. Esau comes in, but it is too late. 31-33. 
Ww then ? The whole illusion is dispelled from the mind of Isaac. 



GEN. XXVII. 383 

Tea, blessed he shall be. Jacob had no doubt perpetrated a fraud, at 
the instigation of his mother ; and if Esau had been worthy in other 
respects, and above all if the blessing had been designed for him, its 
bestowment on another would have been either prevented or regarded 
as null and void. But Isaac now felt that, whatever was the miscon- 
duct of Jacob in interfering, and especially in employing unworthy 
means to accomplish his end, he himself was culpable in allowing 
carnal considerations to draw his preference to Esau, who was other- 
wise unworthy. He knew too that the paternal benediction flowed 
not from the bias of the parent, but from the Spirit of God guiding his 
will, and therefore when so pronounced could not be revoked. Hence 
he was now convinced that it was the design of Providence that the 
spiritual blessing should fall on the line of Jacob. 34—38. The grief 
of Esau is distressing to witness, especially as he had been compara- 
tively blameless in this particular instance. But still it is to be re- 
membered that his heart had not been open to the paramount impor- 
tance of spiritual things. Isaac now perceives that Jacob has gained 
the blessing by deceit. Esau marks the propriety of his name, the 
wrestler who trips up the heel, and pleads pathetically for at least 
some blessing. His father enumerates what he has done for Jacob, 
and asks what more he can do for Esau ; who then exclaims, Hast 
thou but one blessing ? 

39-41. At length, in reply to the weeping suppliant, he bestows 
upon him a characteristic blessing. Away from the fatness. The 
preposition ("a) is the same as in the blessing of Jacob. But there, 
after a verb of giving, it had a partitive sense ; here, after a noun of 
place, it denotes distance or separation ; for example, Prov. xx. 3. 
The pastoral life has been distasteful to Esau, and so it shall be with 
his race. The land of Edom was accordingly a comparative wilderness 
(Mai. i. 3). On thy sword. By preying upon others. And thy brother 
shalt thou serve. Edom was long independent; but at length Saul 
was victorious over them (1 Sam. xiv. 47), and David conquered 
them (2 Sam. viii. 14). Then followed a long struggle, until John 
Hyrcanus, 129 b. c, compelled them to be circumcised and incorpora- 
ted into Judaism. Break his yoke. The history of Edom was a per- 
petual struggle against the supremacy of Israel. Conquered by Saul, 
subdued by David, repressed by Solomon, restrained after a revolt by 
Amaziah, they recovered their independence in the time of Ahab. 
They were incorporated into the Jewish state, and furnished it with 
the dynasty of princes beginning with Antipater. E^au was now 



384 JACOB'S JOURNEY TO HARAN. 

exasperated against his brother, and could only compose his mind by 
resolving to slay him during the days of mourning after his father's 
death. 

42-46. Rebekah hearing this, advises Jacob to flee to Laban her 
brother, and await the abatement of his brother's anger. That which 
thou hast done to him. Rebekah seems not to have been aware that she 
herself was the cause of much of the evil and of the misery that flowed 
from it. All the parties to this transaction are pursued by a retribu- 
tive chastisement. Rebekah, especially, parts with her favorite son to 
meet him only after an absence of twenty years, if ever in this life. 
She is moreover grievously vexed with the connection which Esau 
formed with the daughters of Heth. She dreads a similar matrimonial 
alliance on the part of Jacob. 



LVI. JACOB'S JOURNEY TO HARAN. —Gen. xxviii. 



3. brtj? congregation. 

9. F&rra Machalath, sickness, or a harp. 

19. P& Luz, almond. 



XXVIII. 1. And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and 
commanded him, and said unto him, Thou shalt not take a 
wife of the daughters of Kenaan. 2. Arise, go to Padan-aram, 
to the house of Bethuel, thy mother's father, and take thee 
thence a wife of the daughters of Laban, thy mother's brother. 

3. And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and 
multiply thee, that thou mayest be a' congregation of peoples. 

4. And give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee and to thy 
seed with thee : that thou mayest possess the land of thy so- 
journings, which God gave unto Abraham. 5. And Isaac sent 
away Jacob ; and he went unto Padan-aram, to Laban, son of 
Bethuel the Aramite, brother of Rebekah, mother of Jacob and 
Esau. 

6. And Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob, and sent him 
to Padan-aram to take him thence a wife ; and as he blessed 



GEN. XXVIII. 385 

him, he commanded him, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife 
of the daughters of Kenaan. 7. And Jacob hearkened to his 
father and his mother, and went to Padan-aram. 8. And 
Esau saw that the daughters of Kenaan were evil in the eyes 
of Isaac his father. 9. And Esau went unto Ishmael, and took 
Mahalath, daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son, sister of Ne- 
baioth, unto his wives, to be his wife. 7 §§§ 36. 

10. And Jacob came fortli from Beer-sheba, and went to 
Haran. 11. And he lighted on a place, and lodged there, be- 
cause the sun was set : and he took of the stones of the place 
and put for his pillow ; and he lay down in that place. 12. 
And he dreamed, and, behold, a ladder set up on the earth, 
and the top of it reaching to heaven ; and, behold, the angels 
of God ascending and descending on it. 13. And, behold, 
the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord, God 
of Abraham thy father, and God of Isaac : the land whereon 
thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed. 14. And 
thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt 
break fortli to the west and to the east and to the north and 
to the south ; and blessed in thee shall be all the families of 
the earth, and in thy seed. 15. And, behold, I am with thee, 
and will keep thee in all the way that thou goest, and will 
bring thee back into this soil ; for I will not leave thee until I 
have done that which I have spoken to thee. 16. And Jacob 
awoke out of his sleep, and said, Surely the Lord is in this 
place, and I knew it not. 17. And he was afraid, and said, 
How dreadful is this place ! This is none other but the house 
of God, and this is the gate of heaven. 18. And Jacob rose 
up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put 
for his pillow and set it up for a pillar ; and he poured oil 
upon the top of it. 19. And he called the name of that place 
Bethel : but Luz was the name of the city at the first. 20. 
And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and 
keep me in the way that I go, and give me bread to eat and 
raiment to put on, 21. And I return in peace to my father's 
49 



386 JACOB'S JOURNEY TO HARAN. 

house, then shall the Lord be my God : 22. And this stone, 
which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God's house ; and of 
all that thou shalt give me, a tenth will I surely give unto 
thee. 



The blessing of his sons was the last passage in the active life of 
Isaac, after which he retires from the scene. Jacob now becomes the 
leading figure in the sacred history. His spiritual character has not 
yet come out to view. But even now we can discern the general 
distinction in the lives of the three patriarchs. Abraham's is a life of 
authority and decision ; Isaac's, of submission and acquiescence ; and 
Jacob's, of trial and struggle. 

1-5. Isaac has now become alive to the real destiny of Jacob. He 
therefore calls for him to bless him, and give him a command. The 
command is to take a wife, not from Kenaan, but from the kindred of 
his parents. The blessing comes from God Almighty (xvii. 1). It is 
that belonging to the chosen seed, the blessing of Abraham. It em- 
braces a numerous offspring, the land of promise, and all else that is 
included in the blessing of Abraham. A congregation of peoples. 
This is the word congregation (^£ Qahal) which is afterwards ap- 
plied to the assembled people of God, and to which the Greek IkkXi^Ao, 
ecclesia, answers. Jacob complies with his mother's advice and his 
father's command, and, at the same time, reaps the bitter fruit of his 
fraud against his brother in the hardship and treachery of an exile of 
twenty years. The aged Isaac is not without his share in the un- 
pleasant consequences of endeavoring to go against the will of God. 

6-9. Esau is induced, by the charge of his parents to Jacob, the 
compliance of the latter with their wishes, and by their obvious dislike 
to the daughters of Kenaan, to take Mahalath, a daughter of Ishmael, in 
addition to his former wives. Went unto Ishmael; that is, to the fam- 
ily or tribe of Ishmael, as Ishmael himself was now thirteen years 
dead. Esau's hunting and roving career had brought him into contact 
with this family, and we shall presently find him settled in a neighbor- 
ing territory. 

10-22. Jacob's dream and vow. Setting out on the way to Haran, 
he was overtaken by night, and slept in the field. He was far from 
any dwelling, or he did not wish to enter the house of a stranger. 12- 
15. He dreams. A ladder or stair is seen reaching from earth to 
heaven, on which angels ascend and descend. This is a medium of 



gen. xxvm. 387 

communication between heaven and earth, by which messengers pass 
to and fro on errands of mercy. Heaven and earth have been sepa- 
rated by sin. But this ladder has re-established the intercourse. It is 
therefore a beautiful emblem of that which mediates and reconciles 
(John i. 51). It here serves to bring Jacob into communication with 
God, and teaches him the emphatic lesson that he is accepted through 
a mediator. The Lord stood above it, and Jacob, the object of his 
mercy, beneath. 1st. He reveals himself to the sleeper as the Lord 
(ii. 4), the God of Abraham thy father, and of Isaac. It is remarka- 
ble that Abraham is styled his father, that is, his actual grandfather, 
and covenant father. 2d. He renews the promise of the land, of the 
seed, and of the blessing in that seed for the whole race of man. 
Westward, eastward, northward, and southward are they to break forth. 
This expression points to the world-wide universality of the kingdom 
of the seed of Abraham, when it shall become the fifth monarchy, that 
shall subdue all that went before, and endure forever. This tran- 
scends the destiny of the natural seed of Abraham. 3d. He then 
promises to Jacob personally to be with him, protect him, and bring 
him back in safety. This is the third announcement of the seed that 
blesses to the third in the line of descent (xii. 2, 3, xxii. 18, xxvi. 4). 

16-19. Jacob awakes, and exclaims, Surely the Lord is in this place, 
and I knew it not. He knew his omnipresence ; but he did not 
expect a special manifestation of the Lord in this place, far from the 
sanctuaries of his father. He is filled with solemn awe, when he finds 
himself in the house of God and at the gate of heaven. 18, 19. The 
pillar is the monument of the event. The pouring of oil upon it is an 
act of consecration to God who has there appeared to him (Num. vii. 
1). He calls the name of the place Bethel, the house of God. This 
is not the first time it received the name. Abraham also worshipped 
God here, and met with the name already existing (see on xii. 8, xiii. 
3, xxv. 30. 

20-22. Jacob's vow. A vow is a solemn engagement to perform a 
certain duty, the obligation of which is felt at the time to be specially 
binding. It partakes, therefore, of the nature of a promise or a cove- 
nant. It involves in its obligation, however, only one party, and is 
the spontaneous act of that party. Here, then, Jacob appears to take a 
step in advance of his predecessors. Hitherto God had taken the ini- 
tiative in every promise, and the everlasting covenant rests solely on 
his eternal purpose. Abraham had responded to the call of God, be- 
lieved in the Lord, walked before him, entered into communion with 



3S8 JACOB'S MAERIAGE. 

him, made intercession with him, and given up his only son to him 
at his demand. In all this there is an acceptance on the part of the 
creature of the supremacy of the merciful Creator. But now the spirit 
of adoption prompts Jacob to a spontaneous movement towards God. 
This is no ordinary vow, referring to some special or occasional resolve. 
It is the grand and solemn expression of the soul's free, full, and per- 
petual acceptance of the Lord to be its own God. This is the most 
frank and open utterance of new-born spiritual liberty from the heart 
of man that has yet appeared in the divine record. If God will be 
with me. This is not the condition on which Jacob will accept God in 
a mercenary spirit. It is merely the echo and the thankful acknowl- 
edgment of the divine assurance, " I am with thee," which was given 
immediately before. It is the response of the son to the assurance of 
the father : " Wilt thou indeed be with me ? Thou shalt be my God." 
This stone shall be God's house, a monument of the presence of God 
among his people, and a symbol of the indwelling of his Spirit in 
their hearts. As it comes in here it signalizes the grateful and lov- 
ing welcome and entertainment which God receives from his saints. 
A tenth will I surely give unto thee. The honored guest is treated as 
one of the family. Ten is the whole : a tenth is a share of the whole. 
The Lord of all receives one share as an acknowledgment of his sov- 
ereign right to all. Here it is represented as the full share given to 
the king who condescends to dwell with his subjects. Thus Jacob 
opens his heart, his home, and his treasure to God. These are the 
simple elements of a theocracy, a national establishment of the true 
religion. The spirit of power, and of love, and of a sound mind, has 
begun to reign in Jacob. As the Father is prominently manifested in 
regenerate Abraham, and the Son in Isaac, so also the Spirit in Jacob. 



LVn. JACOB'S MARRIAGE. — Gen. xxix. 

6. ^rn Rachel, a ewe. 

16. H5tb Leah, wearied. 

24. MQ^t Zilpah, drop ? 

29. Stnbs Bilhah, timidity. 

32. "pM^I Reuben, behold a son. A paronomasia in allusion to the 
phrase ^323 nan. Derivatives and compounds, being formed by the 
common speaker, are sometimes founded upon resemblance in sound, 



GEN. XXIX. 389 

and not always on precise forms of the original sentence which prompted 
them. 

33. "psata Shim'on, hearing, answer. 

34. *»ib Levi, junction, union, 

35. Ttvarfl Jehudah, praised. 



XXIX. 1. And Jacob lifted up his feet, and went to the 
land of the sons of the east. 2. And he saw, and behold, a 
well in the field, and behold there three flocks of sheep lying 
by it ; for out of that well they watered the flocks : and the 
stone was great upon the well's mouth. 3. And thither are 
all the flocks gathered, and they roll the stone from the well's 
mouth, and water the sheep, and put the stone again upon the 
well's mouth in its place. 4. And Jacob said unto them, My 
brethren, whence are ye ? And he said, Of Haran are we. 
5. And he said unto them, Know ye Laban, son of Nahor ? 
And they said, We know him. 6. And he said unto them, 
Is he well ? And they said, Well ; and behold Rachel his 
daughter coming with the sheep. 7. And he said, Lo, yet the 
day is great ; it is not time for the cattle to be gathered : water 
ye the sheep, and go feed them. 8. And they said, We can- 
not, until all the flocks are gathered, and they roll the stone 
from the well's mouth, and we water the sheep. 

9. He was yet speaking with them, and Rachel came with 
her father's sheep ; for she kept them. 10. And it came to 
pass when Jacob saw Rachel, daughter of Laban his mother's 
brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother's brother, that 
Jacob drew near, and rolled the stone from the well's mouth, 
and watered the sheep of Laban his mother's brother. 11. 
And Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice and wept. 
12. And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father's brother, 
and that he was Rebekah's son : and she ran and told her fa- 
ther. 13. And it came to pass, when Laban heard the tidings 
of Jacob his sister's son, that he ran to meet him, and em- 
braced him, and kissed him, and brought him to his house : 



390 JACOB'S MAEEIAGE. 

and he told Laban all these things. 14. And Laban said to 
him, Surely my bone and my flesh art thou. And he abode 
with him a month of days. 

15. And Laban said unto Jacob, Because thou art my bro- 
ther, shouldst thou serve me for naught ? Tell me what shall 
thy wages be ? 16. And Laban had two daughters : the name 
of the elder Leah, and the name of the younger Rachel. 17. 
And Leah's eyes were tender : and Rachel was beautiful in 
form and in look. 18. And Jacob loved Rachel : and he said, 
I will serve thee seven years for Rachel thy younger daughter. 
19. And Laban said, It is better that I give her to thee than 
that I give her to another man : abide with me. 20. And 
Jacob served for Rachel seven years ; and they were in his 
eyes like a few days, for the love he had to her. 

21. And Jacob said unto Laban, Give my wife, for my days 
are fulfilled, that I may go in unto her. 22. And Laban 
gathered all the men of the place, and made a feast. 23. And 
it came to pass in the evening, that he took Leah his daughter, 
and brought her to him ; and he went in unto her. 24. And 
Laban gave her Zilpah his maid, for a handmaid to Leah hi? 
daughter. 25. And it came to pass in the morning, that be- 
hold it was Leah : and he said to Laban, What is this that 
thou hast done unto me ? Have I not served with thee for 
Rachel ? And why hast thou beguiled me ? 26. And Laban 
said, It must not be so done in our country, to give the 
younger before the firstborn. 27. Fulfil the week of this, and 
we will give thee this also, for the service which thou shalt 
serve with me yet other seven years. 28. And Jacob did so, 
and fulfilled her week ; and he gave him Rachel his daughter 
to be his wife. 29. And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter 
Bilhah his maid, to be her handmaid. 30. And he went in 
also unto Rachel, and loved also Rachel more than Leah : and 
he served with him yet other seven years. 

31. And the Lord saw that Leah was hated, and he opened 
her womb ; and Rachel was barren. 32. And Leah conceived, 



GEN. XXIX. 391 

and bare a son, and called his name Reuben : for she said, 
For the Lord hath looked on my affliction ; for now will my 
husband love me. 33. And she conceived again, and bare a 
son, and said, For the Lord hath heard that I was hated, and 
gave me also this. And she called his name Simon. 34. And 
she conceived again, and bare a son, and said, Now this time 
will my husband be joined unto me : for I have him three sons. 
Therefore was his name called Levi. 35. And she conceived 
again, and bare a son, and said, This time will I praise the 
Lord. Therefore she called his name Judah, and she stayed 
from bearing. 

In this chapter and the following Jacob grows from a solitary fugi- 
tive with a staff' in his hand (xxxii. 10) to be the father of a large 
family and the owner of great wealth. He proves himself to be a man 
of patience and perseverance, and the Lord according to promise is 
with him. 

1—8. Jacob arrives at the well of Haran. The land of the sons of 
the east. The points of the heavens were defined by the usage of 
practical life, and not by the standard of a science yet unknown. 
Hence the east means any quarter toward the sunrising. Haran was 
about four degrees east of Beer-sheba, and five and a half degrees north. 
The distance was about four hundred and fifty miles, and therefore it 
would take Jacob fifteen days to perform the journey at thirty miles a 
day. If he reached Bethel the first night, he must have travelled about 
fifty miles the first day. After this he proceeds on his journey without 
any memorable incident. 2, 3. In the neighborhood of Haran he 
comes upon a well, by which lay three flocks. This is not the well 
near Haran where Abraham's servant met Rebekahi It is in the pas- 
ture grounds at some distance from the town. On its mouth was a 
large stone, indicating that water was precious, and that the well was 
the common property of the surrounding natives. The custom was to 
gather the flocks, roll away the stone, which was too great to be moved 
by a boy or a female, water the flocks, and replace the stone. 4-6. 
Jacob, on making inquiry, learns that Haran is at hand, that Laban is 
well, and that Rachel is drawing nigh with her father's flocks. Laban is 
called by Jacob the son of Nahor, that is, his grandson, with the usual 
latitude of relative names in Scripture (xxviii. 13). 7, 8. The day is 
great. A great part of it yet remains. It is not yet the time to shut 



392 JACOB'S MARRIAGE. 

up the cattle for the night ; " water the sheep and go feed them." 
Jacob may have wished to meet with Rachel without presence of the 
shepherds. We cannot. There was a rule or custom that the flocks 
must be all assembled before the stone was rolled away for the pur- 
pose of watering the cattle. This may have been required to insure a 
fair distribution of the water to all parties, and especially to those who 
were too weak to roll away the stone. 

9-14. Jacob's interview with Rachel, and hospitable reception by 
Laban. Rachel's approach awakens all Jacob's warmth of feeling. 
He rolls away the stone, waters the sheep, kisses Rachel, and bursts 
into tears. The remembrance of home and of the relationship of his 
mother to Rachel overpowers him. 12—14. He informs Rachel who 
he is, and she runs to acquaint her father. Laban hastens to welcome 
his relative to his house. Surely my bone and my flesh art thou. This 
is a description of kinsmanship probably derived from the formation of 
the woman out of the man (ii. 23). A month here means the period 
from new moon to new moon, and consists of twenty-nine or thirty days. 

15. Jacob serves seven years for Rachel. What shall thy wages be? 
An active, industrious man like Jacob was of great value to Laban. 
1 6. Two daughters. Daughters in those countries and times were also 
objects of value, for which their parents were wont to receive consid- 
erable presents (xxiv. 53). Jacob at present, however, is merely 
worth his labor. He has apparently nothing else to offer. 18-20. 
As he loves Rachel, he offers to serve seven years for her, and is ac- 
cepted. Isaac loved Rebekah after she was sought and won as a bride 
for him. Jacob loves Rachel before he makes a proposal of marriage. 
His attachment is pure and constant, and hence the years of his service 
seem but days to him. The pleasure of her society both in the business 
and leisure of life makes the hours pass unnoticed. It is obvious that 
in those early days the intercourse of the sexes before marriage was 
more unrestrained than it afterwards became. 

21-30. Jacob is betrayed into marrying Leah, and on consenting to 
serve other seven years obtains Rachel also. He claims his expected, 
reward when due. 22-24. Made a feast. The feast in the house 
of the bride's father seems to have lasted seven days, at the close of 
which the marriage was completed. But the custom seems to have 
varied according to the circumstances of the bridegroom. Jacob had no 
house of his own to which to conduct the bride. In the evening : when 
it was dark. The bride was also closely veiled, so that it was easy for 
Laban to practise this piece of deceit. A handmaid. It was customary 



GEN. XXIX. 393 

to give the bride a handmaid, who became her confidential servant 
(xxiv. 59, 61). 25-27. In the morning Jacob discovers that Laban 
had overreached him. This is the first retribution Jacob experiences 
for the deceitful practices of his former days. He expostulates with 
Laban, who pleads the custom of the country. It is still the custom 
not to give the younger in marriage before the older, unless the latter 
be deformed or in some way defective. It is also not unusual to prac- 
tise the very same trick that Laban now employed, if the suitor is so 
simple as to be off his guard. Jacob, however, did not expect this at 
his relative's hands, though he had himself taken part in proceedings 
equally questionable. Fulfil the week of this. If this was the second 
day of the feast celebrating the nuptials of Leah, Laban requests him 
to complete the week, and then he will give him Rachel also. If, how- 
ever, Leah was fraudulently put upon him at the close of the week of 
feasting, then Laban in these words proposes to give Rachel to Jacob 
on fulfilling another week of nuptial rejoicing. The latter is in the 
present instance more likely. In either case the marriage of Rachel 
is only a week after that of Leah. 28-30. Rather than lose Rachel 
altogether, Jacob consents to comply with Laban's terms. Rachel was 
the wife of Jacob's affections and intentions. The taking of a second 
wife in the lifetime of the first was contrary to the law of nature, which 
designed one man for one woman (ii. 21-25). But the marrying of a 
sister-in-law was not yet incestuous, because no law had yet been made 
on the subject. Laban gives a handmaid to each of his daughters. To 
Rebekah his sister had been given more than one (xxiv. 61). Bond- 
slaves had been in existence long before Laban's time (xvi. 1). And 
loved also Rachel more than Leah. This proves that even Leah was 
not unloved. At the time of his marriage Jacob was eighty-four years 
of age ; which corresponds to half that age according to the present 
average of human life. 

31-35/ Leah bears four sons to Jacob. The Lord saw. The eye 
of the Lord is upon the sufferer. It is remarkable that both the nar- 
rator and Leah employ the proper name of God, which makes the 
performance of promise a prominent feature of his character. This is 
appropriate in the mouth of Leah, who is the mother of the promised 
seed. That Leah was hated, — less loved than Rachel. He therefore 
recompenses her for the want of her husband's affections by giving her 
children, while Rachel was barren. Reuben, — behold a son. The Lord 
hath looked on my affliction. Leah had qualities of heart, if not of 
outward appearance, which commanded esteem. She had learned to 
50 



394 JACOB'S FAMILY AND WEALTH. 

acknowledge the Lord in all her ways. Simon, — answer. She had 
prayed to the Lord, and this was her answer. Levi, — union, the recon- 
ciler. Her husband could not, according to the prevailing sentiments 
of those days, fail to be attached to the mother of three sons. Judah, 
— praised. Well may she praise the Lord ; for this is the ancestor of 
the promised seed. It is remarkable that the wife of priority, but not 
of preference, is the mother of the seed in whom all nations are to be 
blessed. Levi the reconciler is the father of the priestly tribe. Simon 
is attached to Judah. Reuben retires into the background. 

Reuben may have been born when Jacob was still only eighty-four, 
and consequently Judah when he was eighty-seven. 



LVIII. JACOB'S FAMILY AND WEALTH. — Gen. xxx. 

6. ""n Dan, judge, lord. 
8. ^PiSS Naphtali, wrestling. 
11. *ia Gad, overcoming, victory, *iiia in victory or = 1Ji xa victory 
cometh. I^a press down. *Qp% troop. 

13. "vrx Asher, prosperity, happiness. 

18. "oiEttS*] Jissakar, reward. The second ttJ seems to have been 
merely a full mode of writing the word, instead of the abbreviated form 

20. "pbat Zebulun, dwelling. There is here a play upon the two 
words lat to endow and bat to dwell, the latter of which, however, pre- 
vails in the name. They occur only here as verbs. 

21. n^'n Dinah, judgment. 

14. v)b^ Joseph, he shall add. There is, however, an obvious allusion 
to the thought. " God hath taken away (C]px) my reproach.'' Double 
references, we find, are usual in the giving of names (see xxv. 30). 

XXX. 1. And Rachel saw that she bare not to Jacob, and 
Rachel envied her sister ; and said unto Jacob, Give me chil- 
dren, or else I do. 2. And Jacob's anger was kindled against 
Rachel ; and he said, Am I instead of God. Who hath withheld 
from thee the fruit of the womb ? 3. And she said, Behold, 
my maid Bilhah, go in unto her ; and she shall bear upon my 



GEN. XXX. 395 

knees, and I also shall be built up from her. 4. And she gave 
him Bilhah her maid to wife, and Jacob went in unto her. 5. 
And Bilhah conceived and bare Jacob a son. 6. And Rachel 
said, God hath judged me, and also heard my voice, and given 
me a son. Therefore called she his name Dan. 7. And Bil- 
hah, Rachel's maid, conceived again, and bare a second son to 
Jacob. 8, And Rachel said, Wrestlings of God have I wres- 
tled with my sister, and have prevailed. And she called his 
name Naphtali. 

9. And Leah saw that she had stayed from bearing : and she 
took Zilpah her maid, and gave her to Jacob to wife. 10. 
And Zilpah, Leah's maid, bare Jacob a son. 11. And Leah 
said, Victory cometh. And she called his name Gad. 12. 
And Zilpah, Leah's maid, bare a second son to Jacob. 13. 
And Leah said, Happy am I ; for the daughters will call me 
happy. And she called his name Asher. 

14. And Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest, and 
found mandrakes in the field, and brought them unto Leah 
his mother. And Rachel said to Leah, Give me now of thy 
son's mandrakes. 15. And she said unto her, Is it a small 
matter to take my husband, and wouldest thou take also my 
son's mandrakes ? And Rachel said, Therefore he shall lie 
with thee to-night for thy son's mandrakes. 16. And Jacob 
came out of the. field in the evening, and Leah came out to 
meet him, and said, Thou art to come in unto me ; for surely 
I have hired thee with my son's mandrakes. And he lay with 
her that night. 17. And God hearkened unto Leah, and she 
conceived, and bare Jacob a fifth son. 18. And Leah said, 
God hath given my hire, because I gave my maiden to my 
husband. And she called his name Issakar. 19. And Leah 
conceived again, and bare a sixth son to Jacob. 20. And 
Leah said, God hath endowed me with a good dowry : this 
time will my husband dwell with me, for I have borne him six 
sons. >And she called his name Zebulun. 21. And after- 
wards she bare a daughter, and called her name Dinah. 



396 JACOB'S FAMILY AND WEALTH. 

22. And God remembered Rachel : and God hearkened to 
her, and opened her womb. 23. And she conceived and bare 
a son : and she said, God hath taken away my reproach. 24. 
And she called his name Joseph, saying, the Lord shall add to 
me another son. 

25. And it came to pass when Rachel had borne Joseph, 
that Jacob said unto Laban, Send me away, and let me go to 
my place and to my land. 26. Give my wives and my chil- 
dren for whom I have served thee, and let me go : for thou 
knowest my service which I have done thee. 27. And Laban 
said unto him, Let me now find favor in thine eyes : I have 
divined, and the Lord blessed me for thy sake. 28. And he said, 
Appoint thy hire upon me, and I will give it. 29. And he 
said unto him, Thou knowest how I have served thee, and how 
thy cattle was with me. 30. For it was little which thou hadst 
before I came, and it brake forth into abundance, and the 
Lord blessed thee at my foot : and now, when shall I do for 
my own house ? 31. And he said, What shall I give thee ? 
And Jacob said, Thou shalt not give me anything : if thou 
wilt do for me this thing, I will again feed and keep thy flock. 
32. I will pass through all thy flock to-day : remove thou 
thence every speckled and spotted sheep, and every brown 
sheep among the lambs, and the spotted and speckled among 
the goats : and such shall be my hire. 33. And my righteous- 
ness shall answer for me in time to come, when thou shalt go 
over my hire before thee ; any that is not speckled or spotted 
among the goats, or brown among the sheep, is stolen with me. 

34. And Laban said, Behold, may it be according to thy word. 

35. And he removed that day. all the straked and spotted he- 
goats, and all the speckled and spotted she-goats, all in which 
was any white, and all the brown among the sheep, and gave 
them into the hand of his sons. 36. And he set three days' 
journey between himself and Jacob ; and Jacob fed the rest 
of Laban' s flock. 

37. And Jacob took him fresh rods of poplar and hazel and 



GEN. XXX. 397 

plane ; and pilled them in white strakes, stripping the white 
that was in the rods. 38. And he set the rods, which he had 
pillod, in the troughs in the vessels of water, whither the flock 
went to drink, before the flock, and they conceived when 
going to drink. 89. And the flock conceived before the rods ; 
and the flock bare straked, speckled, and spotted. 40. And 
Jacob separated the lambs, and set the faces of the flock to the 
straked and all the brown in the flock of Laban ; and he put 
his own folds by themselves, and put them not unto Laban's 
flock. 41. And it came to pass when the strong cattle con- 
ceived, that Jacob set the rods before the flock in the troughs, 
that they might conceive at the rods. 42. And when the 
sheep were weak he set them not ; and the feeble were Laban's, 
and the strong Jacob's. 43. And the man brake forth exceed- 
ingly ; and he had much cattle, and maid-servants and men- 
servants, and camels and asses. 



This chapter is the continuation of the former, and completes the 
history of Jacob in Haran. The event immediately following probably 
took place after Leah had borne two of her sons, though not admitted 
into the narrative till she had paused for a short time (see page 79). 

1-8. Bilhah, Rachel's maid, bears two sons. 1—4. Rachel becomes 
impatient of her barrenness and jealous of her sister, and unjustly re- 
proaches her husband, who indignantly rebukes her. God, not he, has 
withheld children from her. She does what Sarah had done before 
her (xvi. 2, 3), gives her handmaid to her husband. No express law 
yet forbade this course, though nature and Scripture by implication 
did (ii. 23-25). 5, 6. Dan. God hath judged me. In this passage 
Jacob and Rachel use the common noun, God, the Everlasting, and 
therefore Almighty, who rules in the physical relations of things, — a 
name suitable to the occasion. He had judged her, dealt with her 
according to his sovereign justice in withholding the fruit of the womb, 
when she was self-complacent and forgetful of her dependence on a 
higher power; and also in hearing her voice when she approached 
him in humble supplication. 7, 8. Naphtali. Wrestlings of God, with 
God, in prayer, on the part of both sisters, so that they wrestled with 
one another in the self-same act. Rachel, though looking first to Jacob 



398 JACOB'S FAMILY AND WEALTH. 

and then to her maid, had at length learned to look to her God, and 
then had prevailed. 

9-13. Leah having stayed from bearing, resorts to the same expedi- 
ent. Her fourth son was seemingly born in the fourth year of Jacob's 
marriage. Bearing her first four sons so rapidly, she would the sooner 
observe the temporary cessation. After the interval of a year she 
may have given Zilpah to Jacob. 10, 11. Gad. Victory cometh. She 
too claims a victory. 12, 13. Asher. Daughters will pronounce her 
happy who is so rich in sons. Leah is seemingly conscious that she is 
here pursuing a device of her own heart ; and hence there is no ex- 
plicit reference to the divine name or influence in the naming of the 
two sons of her maid. 

14-21. Reuben was at this time four or five years of age, as it is prob- 
able that Leah began to bear again before Zilpah had her second son. 
Mandrahes, — the fruit of the mandragora vernalis, which is to this day 
supposed to promote fruitfulness of the womb. Rachel therefore de- 
sires to partake of them, and obtains them by a compact with Leah. 
16-18. Leah betakes herself to prayer, and bears a fifth son. She 
calls him Issahar, with a double allusion. She had hired her husband 
with the mandrakes, and had received this son as her hire for giving 
her maid to her husband ; which she regards as an act of generosity or 
self-denial. 19, 20. Zebulun. Here Leah confesses, " God hath en- 
dowed me with a good dowry." She speaks now like Rachel of the 
God of nature. The cherished thought that her husband will dwell 
with her who is the mother of six sons takes form in the name. 21. 
Dinah is the only daughter of Jacob mentioned (xlvi. 7), and that on 
account of her subsequent connection with the history of Jacob (xxxiv). 
Issakar appears to have been born in the sixth year after Jacob's 
marriage, Zebulun in the seventh, and Dinah in the eighth. 

22-2-1. God remembered Rachel, in the best time for her, after he 
had taught her the lessons of dependence and patience. Joseph. There 
is a remote allusion to her gratitude for the reproach of barrenness 
taken away. But there is also hope in the name. The selfish feeling 
also has died away, and the thankful Rachel rises from Elohim, the 
invisible Eternal, to Jehovah, the manifest Self-existent. The birth of 
Joseph was after the fourteen years of service were completed. He 
and Dinah appear to have been born in the same year. 

25-3 6. Jacob enters into a new contract of service with Laban. 25, 
26. When Rachel had borne Joseph. Jacob cannot ask his dismissal 
till the twice seven years of service were completed. Hence the birth 



GEN. XXX. 399 

of Joseph, which is the date of his request, took place at the earliest 
in the fifteenth year of his sojourn with Laban. Jacob now wishes to 
return home, from which he had been detained so long by serving for 
Rachel. He no doubt expects of Laban the means at least of accom- 
plishing his journey. 27,28. Laban is loath to part with him. I have 
divined, — I have been an attentive observer. The result of his obser- 
vation is expressed in the following words. Appoint. Laban offers to 
leave the fixing of the hire to Jacob. Thy hire upon me, which I will 
take upon me as binding. 29, 30. Jacob touches upon the value of 
his services, perhaps with the tacit feeling that Laban in equity owed 
him at least the means of returning to his home. Brake forth, — in- 
creased. At my foot, — under my guidance and tending of thy flocks. 
Do, — provide. 31-33. Thou shalt not give me anything. This shows 
that Jacob had no stock from Laban to begin with. " I will pass 
through all thy flock to-day " with thee. " Remove thou thence every 
speckled and spotted sheep, and every brown sheep among the lambs, 
and the spotted and speckled among the goats." These were the rare 
colors, as in the East the sheep are usually white, and the goats black 
or dark brown. And such shall be my hire. Such as these uncommon 
party-colored cattle, when they shall appear among the flock already 
cleared of them ; and not those of this description that are now re- 
moved. For in this case Laban would have given Jacob something ; 
whereas Jacob was resolved to be entirely dependent on the divine 
providence for his hire. And my righteousness will answer for me. 
The color will determine at once whose the animal is. 34—36. Laban 
willingly consents to so favorable a proposal, removes the party-col- 
ored animals from the flock, gives them into the hands of his sons, and 
puts an interval of three days' journey between them and the pure 
stock which remains in Jacob's hands. Jacob is now to begin with 
nothing, and have for his hire any party-colored lambs or kids that 
appear in those flocks, from which every specimen of this rare class 
has been carefully removed. 

37-43. Jacob devises means to provide himself with a flock in these 
unfavorable circumstances. 37-40. His first device is to place party- 
colored rods before the eyes of the cattle at the rutting season, that 
they might drop lambs and kids varied with speckles, patches, or 
streaks of white. He had learned from experience that there is a 
congruence between the colors of the objects contemplated by the dams 
at that season and those of their young. At all events they bare 
many straked, speckled, and spotted lambs and kids. He now separa- 



400 JACOB'S FLIGHT FROM HARAN. 

ted the lambs, and set the faces of the flock toward the young of the 
rare colors, doubtless to affect them in the same way as the pilled rods. 
Put his own folds by themselves. These are the party-colored cattle 
that from time to time appeared in the flock of Laban. 41, 42. In order 
to secure the stronger cattle, Jacob added the second device of em- 
ploying the party-colored rods only when the strong cattle conceived. 
The sheep in the East lamb twice a year, and it is supposed that the lambs 
dropped in autumn are stronger than those dropped in the spring. 
On this supposition Jacob used his artifice in the spring, and not in the 
autumn. It is probable, however, that he made his experiments on 
the healthy and vigorous cattle, without reference to the season of the 
year. 43. The result is here stated. The man brake forth exceedingly, 
— - became rapidly rich in hands and cattle. 

It is obvious that the preceding and present chapters form one con- 
tinuous piece of composition ; as otherwise we have no account of the 
whole family of Jacob from one author. But the names Elohim and 
Jehovah are both employed in the piece, and hence their presence and 
interchange cannot indicate diversity of authorship. 



LIX. JACOB'S FLIGHT FROM HARAN. — Gen. xxxi. 

19. M'lPi Teraphim. This word occurs fifteen times in the Old 
Testament. It appears three times in this chapter, and nowhere else 
in the Pentateuch. It is always in the plural number. The root does 
not appear in Biblical Hebrew. It perhaps means to live well, intran- 
sitively (Gesen., Roedig.), to nourish, transitively (Fiirst). The tera- 
phim were symbols or representatives of the Deity, as Laban calls 
them his gods. They seem to have been busts (irporoixal, Aquila) of 
the human form, sometimes as large as life (1 Sam. xix. 13). Those 
of full size were probably of wood ; the smaller ones may have been 
of metal. In two passages (Jud. xvii. xviii. ; Hos. iii. 4) they are six 
times associated with the ephod. This intimates either that they were 
worn on the ephod, like the Urim and Thummim, or more probably 
that the ephod was worn on them ; in accordance with which they 
were employed for the purposes of divination (xxx. 27 ; Zeph. x. 2.) 
The employment of them in the worship of God, which Laban seems 
to have inherited from his fathers (Josh. xxiv. 2), is denounced as 



GEN. XXXI. 401 

idolatry (1 Sam. xv. 23) ; and hence they are classed with the idols 
and other abominations put away by Josiah (2 Kings xxiii. 24). 

47. StMiNg 15* Jegar-sahadutha, cairn of witness, in the Aramaic 
dialect of the old Hebrew, or Shemite speech, ^sba and nsba Gafed 
and Gifad, cairn of witness, in Hebrew specially so called (see xi. 
l-S). 

49. i"iQ:£73 Mizpah, watch-tower. 



XXXI. 1. And he heard the words of Laban's sons, saying 
Jacob hath taken all that was our father's ; and of that which 
was our father's hath he made all this glory. 2. And Jacob saw 
the face of Laban ; and, behold, it was not with him as hereto- 
fore. 3. And the Lord said unto Jacob, Return unto the 
land of thy fathers, and to thy kindred ; and I will be with 
thee. 4. And Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the 
field unto his flock. 5. And said unto them, I see your fa- 
ther's face that it is not towards me as heretofore ; and the God 
of my father hath been with me. 6. And ye know that with 
all my might I served your father. 7. And your father hath 
deceived me, and changed my wages ten times : and God suf- 
fered him not to hurt me. 8. If he said thus, The speckled 
shall be thy hire, then all the cattle bare speckled : and if he 
said thus, The straked shall be thy hire, then all the cattle 
bare straked. 9. And God took away the cattle of your father, 
and gave them to me. 10. And it came to pass at the time 
that the cattle conceived, that I lifted up mine eyes and saw 
in a dream, and beheld the bucks that leaped upon the flock 
were straked, speckled, and grisled. 11. And the angel of 
God said to me in a dream, Jacob ; and I said, Here am I. 12. 
And he said, Lift up now thine eyes and see, all the bucks 
that leap upon the flock are straked, speckled, and grisled ; 
for I have seen all that Laban doeth unto thee. 13. I am the 
God of Bethel, where thou anointedst a pillar, when thou 
vowedst to me a vow : now arise, come out of this land, and 
return unto the land of thy kindred. 
51 



402 JACOB'S PLIGHT FROM HARAN. 

14. And Rachel and Leah answered and said unto him, Is 
there yet to us any portion or inheritance in our father's house ? 
15. Are we not counted of him strangers ? For he hath sold 
us ; and he quite devoured also our silver. 16. For all the 
riches which God hath taken from our father, belongs to us 
and our children ; and now all that God hath said unto thee, 
do. 17. And Jacob rose up, and set his sons and his wives 
upon camels. 18. And he carried away all his cattle, and all 
his gain which he had gained, the cattle of his getting, which 
he had gained in Padan-aram, to go to Isaac his father, to the 
land of Kenaan. 19. And Laban went to shear his sheep: 
and Rachel stole the teraphim which were her father's. 

20. And Jacob stole the heart of Laban the Aramite, in that 
he told him not that he fled. 21. And he fled and all that he 
had ; and he rose up and passed over the river : and he set 
his face toward Mount Gilead. 22. And it was told Laban on 
the third day, that Jacob was fled. 23. And he took his 
brethren with him, and pursued after him seven days' journey : 
and overtook him in Mount Gilead. 24. And God came to 
Laban the Aramite in a dream of the night : and said unto 
him, Take heed that thou speak not with Jacob from good to 
bad. 

25. And Laban overtook Jacob : and Jacob had pitched his 
tent in the mount ; and Laban pitched with his brethren in 
Mount Gilead. 26. And Laban said to Jacob, What hast thou 
done ? and stolest my heart, and carriedst away my daughters 
as captives of the sword. 27. Why hast thou fled away se- 
cretly, and stolen away from me : and hast not told me, that 
I might send thee away with gladness and with songs, and with 
tabret and with harp ? 28. And hast not suffered me to kiss my 
sons and my daughters. Now hast thou done foolishly. 29. It 
is in the power of my hand to do you hurt : and the God of 
your father yesternight said to me, saying, Take heed that thou 
speak not with Jacob from good to bad. 30. And now thou 
hast indeed gone, because thou sorely longedst after thy fa- 



GEN. XXXI. 403 

thcr's house ; wherefore hast thou stolen my gods ? 31. And 
Jacob answered and said to Laban, Because I was afraid ; for 
I said, Lest thou snatch thy daughters from me. 32. With 
whomsoever thou findest thy gods, let him not live ; before our 
brethren discern what is thine with me, and take it to thee. 
For Jacob knew not that Rachel had stolen them. 

33. And Laban went into Jacob's tent, and into Leah's tent, 
and into the two handmaids' tents, and found them not : and 
he came from Leah's tent, and went into Rachel's tent. 34. 
And Rachel had taken the teraphim and put them into the 
camel's saddle, and sat upon them : and Laban felt all the 
tent, and found them not. 35. And she said to her father, Let 
it not displease my lord that I cannot rise up before thee, for 
the custom of women is upon me. And he searched and found 
not the teraphim. 36. And Jacob was wroth, and chode with 
Laban : and Jacob answered and said to Laban, What is my 
trespass, and what my sin, that thou hast pursued after me ? 
37. When thou hast felt all my stuff, what hast thou found of 
all thy household stuff ? Set it here before my brethren and 
thy brethren, and let them judge between us both. 38. These 
twenty years have I been with thee : thy ewes and thy she- 
goats have not cast their young, and the rams of thy flock 
have I not eaten. 39. That which was torn brought I not unto 
thee : I myself bare the loss of it ; of my hand didst thou re- 
quire it, stolen by day or stolen by night. 40. Thus I was : 
by day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night ; and 
my sleep fled from mine eyes. 41. Thus was I twenty years 
in thy house ; I served thee fourteen years for thy two daugh- 
ters, and six years for thy cattle: and thou changedst my 
wages ten times. 42. Unless the God of my father, the God 
of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, thou 
hadst now sent me away empty : my affliction and the labor 
of my hands God hath seen, and judged yesternight. 

43. And Laban answered and said unto Jacob, The daugh- 
ters are my daughters, the sons my sons, and the cattle my 



404 JACOB'S FLIGHT FROM HARAN. 

cattle, and all that thou seest is mine : and what can I do this 
day unto these my daughters, or unto their children which 
they have borne ? 44. And now come, make we a covenant, 
I and thou, and let it be a witness between me and thee. 45. 
And Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a pillar. 46. And 
Jacob said unto his brethren, Gather stones. And they took 
stones and made a heap, and they ate there upon the heap. 47. 
And Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha : and Jacob called it 
Galeed. 

48. And Laban said, This heap is witness between me and 
thee this day ; therefore was its name called Galeed ; 49. And 
Mizpah, for he said, The Lord watch between me and thee, 
when we are absent one from another. 50. If thou shalt 
afflict my daughters, or if thou take other wives beside my 
daughters, no man is with us ; see, God is witness between me 
and thee. 51. And Laban said to Jacob, Behold this heap, 
and behold the pillar, which I have cast between me and thee. 
52. Witness be this heap, and witness the pillar, that I will 
not pass over this heap to thee, and that thou shalt not pass 
over this heap and this pillar to me, for harm. 53. The God 
of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, 
judge between us. And Jacob sware by the fear of his fa- 
ther Isaac. 54. And Jacob offered sacrifice upon the mount, 
and called his brethren to eat bread ; and they ate bread, and 
lodged in the mount. 

Jacob had now been twenty years in Laban's service, and was there- 
fore ninety-six years of age. It has now become manifest that he 
cannot obtain leave of Laban to return home. He must, therefore, 
either come off by the high hand, or by secret flight. Jacob has many 
reasons for preferring the latter course. 

1-13. Circumstances at length induce Jacob to propose flight to his 
wives. 1, 2. His prosperity provokes the envy and slander of Laban's 
sons, and Laban himself becomes estranged. 3. The Lord now com- 
mands Jacob to return, and promises him his presence to protect him. 
4-13. Jacob now opens his mind fully to Rachel and Leah. Rachel, 



GEX. XXXI. 405 

we observe, is put first. Several new facts come out in his discourse 
to them. Ye know — Jacob appeals to his wives on this point — that 
with all my might I served your father. He means, of course, to the 
extent of his engagement. During the last six years he was to pro- 
vide for his own house, as the Lord permitted him, with the full knowl- 
edge and concurrence of Laban. Beyond this, which is a fair and 
acknowledged exception, he has been faithful in keeping the cattle of 
Laban. Tour father deceived me, and changed my wages ten times ; 
that is, as often as he could. If, at the end of the first year, he found 
that Jacob had gained considerably, though he began with nothing, he 
might change his wages every following half-year, and so actually 
change them ten times in five years. In this case, the preceding 
chapter only records his original expedients, and then states the final 
result. God suffered him not to hurt me. Jacob, we are to remem- 
ber, left his hire to the providence of God. He thought himself 
bound at the same time to use all legitimate means for the attainment 
of the desired end. His expedients may have been perfectly legitimate 
in the circumstances, but they were evidently of no avail without the 
divine blessing. And they would become wholly ineffectual when his 
wages were changed. Hence he says, God took the cattle and gave 
them to me. 10-13. Jacob seems here to record two dreams, the former 
of which is dated at the rutting season. The dream indicates the re- 
sult by a symbolic representation, which ascribes it rather to the God 
of nature than to the man of art. The second dream makes allusion to 
the former as a process still going on up to the present time. This 
appears to be an encouragement to Jacob now to commit himself to the 
Lord on his way home. The angel of the Lord, we observe, announ- 
ces himself as the God of Bethel, and recalls to Jacob the pillar and. 
the vow. The angel, then, is Jehovah manifesting himself to human 
apprehension. 

14-19. His wives entirely accord with his view of their father's 
selfishness in dealing with his son-in-law, and approve of his intended 
departure. Jacob makes all the needful preparations for a hasty and 
secret flight. He avails himself of the occasion when Laban is at a 
distance probably of three or more days' journey, shearing his sheep. 
Rachel stole the teraphim. It is not the business of Scripture to acquaint 
us with the kinds and characteristics of false worship. Hence we 
know little of the teraphim, except that they were employed by those 
who professed to worship the true God. Rachel had a lingering 
attachment to. these objects of her family's superstitious reverence, 



406 JACOB'S FLIGHT FROM HARAN. 

and secretly carried them away as relics of a home she was to visit 
no more, and as sources of safety to herself against the perils of her 
flight. 

20-24. Laban hears of his flight, pursues, and overtakes him. Stole 
the heart, k\£itt<zlv vovv. The heart is the seat of the understanding in 
Scripture. To steal the heart of any one is to act without his knowl- 
edge. Tlie river. The Frat, near which, we may conclude, Jacob 
was tending his flocks. Ilaran was about seventy miles from the 
river, and therefore Laban's flocks were on the other side of Haran. 
Toward mount Gilead ; about three hundred miles from the Frat. On 
the third day. This shows that Laban's flocks kept by his sons were 
still three days' journey apart from Jacob's. His brethren, — his kin- 
dred and dependents. Seven days' journey. On the third day after the 
arrival of the messenger, Laban might return to the spot whence Jacob 
had taken his flight. In this case, Jacob would have at least five 
days of a start ; which, added to the seven days of pursuit, would give 
him twelve days to travel three hundred English miles. To those 
accustomed to the pastoral life this was a possible achievement. God 
appears to Laban on behalf of Jacob, and warns him not to harm him. 
Not to speak from good to lad, is merely to abstain from language 
expressing and prefacing violence. 

25-32. Laban's expostulation and Jacob's reply. What hast thou 
done f Laban intimates that he would have dismissed him honorably 
and affectionately, and therefore that his flight was needless and un- 
kind ; and finally charges him with stealing his gods. Jacob gives him 
to understand that he did not expect fair treatment at his hands, and 
gives him leave to search for his gods, not knowing that Rachel had 
taken them. 

33-42. After the search for the teraphim has proved vain, Jacob 
warmly upbraids Laban. The earners saddle. This was a pack-sad- 
dle, in the recesses of which articles might be deposited, and on which 
was a seat or couch for the rider. Rachel pleads the custom of women 
as an excuse for keeping her seat ; which is admitted by Laban, not 
perhaps from the fear of ceremonial defilement (Lev. xv. 19—27), as 
this law was not yet in force, but from respect to his daughter and the 
conviction that in such circumstances she would not sit upon the tera- 
phim. My brethren and thy brethren, — their common kindred. Jacob 
recapitulates his services in feeling terms. By day the drought ; caused 
by the heat, which is extreme during the day, while the cold is not 
less severe in Palestine during the night. The fear of Isaac, — the 



GEN. XXXII. 407 

God whom Isaac fears. 42. Judged, — requited by restraining thee 
from wrong-doing. 

43-47. Laban, now pacified, if not conscience-stricken, proposes a 
covenant between them. Jacob erects a memorial pillar, around which 
the clan gather a cairn of stones, which serves by its name for a wit- 
ness of their compact. Jegar-sahadutha. Here is the first decided 
specimen of Aramaic, as contradistinguished from Hebrew. Its inci- 
dental appearance indicates a fully formed dialect known to Jacob, 
and distinct from his own. Gilead or Galeed remains to this day in 
Jebel Jelad. though the original spot was further north. 

48-5 4. The covenant is then completed. 49, 59. And Mlzpah. 
This refers to some prominent cliff from which, as a watch-tower, an 
extensive view might be obtained. It was in the northern half of 
Gilead (Deut. iii. 12, 13), and is noticed in Judges xi. 29. It is not 
to be confounded with other places called by the same name. The ref- 
erence of this name to the present occurrence is explained in these two 
verses. The names Gilead and Mizpah may have arisen from this 
transaction, or received a new turn in consequence of its occurrence. 
51-53. The terms of the covenant are now formally stated. I have cast. 
The erection of the pillar was a joint act of the two parties ; in which 
Laban proposes, Jacob performs, and all take part. The God of Abra- 
ham, Nahor, and Terah. This is an interesting acknowledgment that 
their common ancestor Terah and his descendants down to Laban still 
acknowledged the true God even in their idolatry. Jacob swears by 
the fear of Isaac, perhaps to rid himself of any error that had crept into 
Laban's notions of God and his worship. 54. The common sacrifice 
and the common meal ratify the covenant of reconciliation. 



LX. JACOB WRESTLES IN PRAYER. — Gen. xxxii. 

3. EW^ Machanaim, two camps. 
22. pr? Jabboq ; r. pps gush or gurgle out, or pna in niph. wrestle. 
Now Wady Zurka. 

29. bl$j8*l Jisrael, prince of God. 

31. b^:a = £>»*!3!a Peniel, Tenuel, face of God. 

XXXII. 1. And Laban rose early in the morning, and 
kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed them : and La- 



408 JACOB WRESTLES IN PRAYER. 

ban went and returned unto his place. 2. And Jacob went 
on his way, and the angels of God met him. 3. And Jacob 
said, when he saw them, This is God's camp : and he called 
the name of the place Mahanaim. 8 TOT 28 

4. And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his 
brother, unto the land of Seir, the field of Edom. 5. And he 
commanded them, saying, Thus shall ye say unto my lord 
Esau : Thus saith thy servant Jacob, With Laban have I 
sojourned and tarried until now. 6. And I have oxen and 
asses, flocks, and men-servants and maid-servants : and I sent to 
tell my lord, to find grace in thine eyes. 7. And the messen- 
gers returned to Jacob, saying, We have gone to thy brother 
Esau, and also he cometh to meet thee, and four hundred 
men with him. 8. And Jacob was greatly afraid and dis- 
tressed, and he divided the people that was with him. and the 
flocks, and the herds, and the camels, into two camps. 9. And 
he said, If Esau go to the one camp, and smite it, then the 
camp that is left shall escape. 

10. And Jacob said, God of my father Abraham, and God 
of my father Isaac, thou Lord who saidst unto me, Return 
unto thy land, and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with 
thee, 11. I am less than all the mercies and all the truth 
which thou hast done unto thy servant ; for with my staff I 
passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two camps. 12. 
Deliver me now from the hand of my brother, from the hand 
of Esau : for I fear him, lest he come and smite me, the mo- 
ther with the children. 18. And thou saidst, I will surely 
deal well with thee, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, 
which cannot be numbered for multitude. 

14. And he lodged there that night ; and took of that which 
was come into his hand a present for Esau his brother : 15. She- 
goats two hundred, and he-goats twenty, ewes two hundred, 
and rams twenty. 16. Milch camels and their colts thirty, 
kine forty, and bulls ten, she-asses twenty, and foals ten. 17. 
And he delivered into the hand of his servants every drove by 



GEN. XXXII. 409 

itself; and said unto his servants, Pass over before me, and 
put a space between drove and drove. 18. And lie command- 
ed the foremost, saying, When Esau my brother meeteth thee, 
and asketh thee, saying, Whose art thou ? and whither goest 
thou ? and whose are these before thee ? 19. Then shalt thou 
say, Thy servant Jacob's : this is a present sent unto my lord 
Esau : and behold, also, he is behind us. 20. And he com- 
manded also the second and the third, and all that went after 
the droves, saying, On this manner shall ye speak unto Esau, 
when ye find him. 21. And ye shall say also, Behold, thy 
servant Jacob is behind us. For he said, I will appease him 
with the present that goeth before me, and afterwards I will 
see his face : mayhap he will lift up my face. 22. And the 
present passed over before him ; and he himself lodged that 
night in the camp. 

23. And he rose up that night, and took his two wives, and 
his two handmaids, and his eleven sons, and passed over the 
ford of Jabbok. 24. And he took them and sent them over 
the brook, and sent over that he had. 25. And Jacob was left 
alone ; and a man wrestled with him until the dawn arose. 
26. And he saw that he prevailed not over him, and he touched 
the socket of his thigh, and the socket of Jacob's thigh was 
wrenched in his wrestling with him. 27. And he said, Let me 
go, for the dawn ariseth. And he said, I will not let thee go, 
except thou bless me. 28. And he said unto him, What is thy 
name ? And he said, Jacob. 29. And he said, No more Ja- 
cob shall thy name be called, but Israel ; for thou hast striven 
to be prince with God and with men, and didst prevail. CO. 
And Jacob asked and said, Tell now thy name. And he said, 
Wiiy is this that thou askest for my name ? And he blessed 
him there. 31. And Jacob called the name of the place Pe- 
niel : for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. 
32. And the sun rose upon him as he passed over Penuel, 
and he halted upon his thigh. 33. Therefore the children of 
Israel eat not the sinew that shrank, which is upon the socket 
52 



410 JACOB WRESTLES IN PRAYER. 

of the thigh, unto this day ; because he touched the socket of 
Jacob's thigh in the sinew that shrank. 

After twenty years spent in Aram, Jacob now returns to Kenaan. 
As his departure was marked by a great moment in his spiritual life, 
so he *is now approaching to a crisis in his life of no less significance. 

1-3. Jacob Las a vision of the heavenly host. 1. This passage, re- 
cording Laban's farewell and departure, closes the connection of Jacob 
with Haran and all its toils of servitude, and is hence annexed to the 
previous chapter in the English version. In the distribution of the 
original text, it is regarded as the counterpart of the two following 
verses, in which Jacob's onward progress is mentioned, and so placed 
with them at the beginning of a new chapter. 2, 3. The angels of God 
met him. Twenty years ago Jacob saw the mystical ladder connecting 
heaven and earth, and the angels of God thereupon ascending and 
descending from the one to the other. Now, in circumstances of dan- 
ger, he sees the angels of God on earth, encamped beside or. around 
his own camp (Ps. xxxiv. 8). He recognizes them as God's camp, 
and names the place Mahanaim, from the double encampment. This 
vision is not dwelt upon, as it is the mere sequel of the former scene 
at Bethel. Mahanaim has been identified with Mahneh, about eight 
miles from the cairn of Laban and Jacob. 

4-9. Jacob now sends a message to Esau apprising him of his arri- 
val. Unto the land of Seir. Arabia Petraea, with which Esau be- 
came connected by his marriage with a daughter of Ishmael. He was 
now married fifty-six years to his first two wives, and twenty to his 
last, and therefore had a separate and extensive establishment of chil- 
dren and grandchildren. Jacob endeavors to make amends for the 
past by an humble and respectful approach to his elder brother, in 
which he styles himself, " thy servant," and Esau, " my lord." He 
informs him of his wealth, to intimate that he did not expect anything 
from him. Four hundred men with him. This was a formidable force. 
Esau had begun to live by the sword (xxvii. 40), and had surrounded 
himself with a numerous body of followers. Associated by marriage 
with the Hittites and the Ishmaelites, he had rapidly risen to the rank 
of a powerful chieftain. It is vain to conjecture with what intent Esau 
advanced at the head of so large a retinue. It is probable that he was 
accustomed to a strong escort, that he wished to make an imposing ap- 
pearance before his brother, and that his mind was in that wavering 
state, when the slightest incident might soothe him into good-will, or 



GEN. XXXII. 411 

arouse him to vengeance. 8, 9. Jacob, remembering his own former 
dealings with him, has good cause for alarm. He betakes himself to 
the means of deliverance. He disposes of his horde into two camps, 
that if one were attacked and captured, the other might meanwhile 
escape. He never neglects to take all the precautions in his power. 

10-13. Next he betakes himself to prayer. He appeals to the God 
of Abraham and Isaac, to Jehovah the God of promise and perform- 
ance. I am less than ; unworthy of all the mercy and truth of God. 
With my staff. Jacob seems to have left his home without escort and 
without means. It was evidently intended that he should return in a 
short time ; but unforeseen circumstances lengthened the period. Me, 
the mother with the children. Me is here used in that pregnant sense 
which is familiar in Scripture, to include his whole clan ; as Ishmael, 
Israel, Edom, often stand for their respective races. He then pleads 
the express promise of God (xxviii. 13-15, xxxi. 3). 

14-22. Jacob sends forward a present to Esau. He lodged there 
that night. Mahanaim may have been about twenty-five miles from 
the Jabbok. At some point in the interval he awaited the return of 
Ms messengers. Abiding during the night in the camp, not far from 
the ford of the Jabbok, he selects and sends forward to Esau his valu- 
able present of five hundred and fifty head of cattle. That which was 
come into his hand, into his possession. The cattle are selected accord- 
ing to the proportions of male and female which were adopted from 
experience among the ancients (Yarro, de re rust. II. 3). Every drove 
by itself, with a space between, that Esau might have time to estimate 
the great value of the gift. The repetition of the announcement of the 
gift, and of Jacob himself being at hand, was calculated to appease Esau, 
and persuade him that Jacob was approaching him in all brotherly 
confidence and affection. Appease Mm. Jacob designs this gift to be 
the means of propitiating his brother before he appears in his presence. 
Lift np my face, accept me. Lodged that night in the camp ; after 
sending this present over the Jabbok. This seems the same night 
referred to in v. 14. 

23-33. Jacob wrestles with a man. 23, 24. Passed over the ford of 
Jabbok. The Jabbok rose near Rabbath Amnion, and flowed into the 
Jordan, separating North Gilead from South, or the kingdom of Og 
from that of Sihon. 25. Jacob was left alone, on the north side, after 
all had passed over. A man wrestled with him. When God has a 
new thing of a spiritual nature to bring into the experience of man, he 
begins with the senses. He takes man on the ground on which he 



412 JACOB WRESTLES IN PRAYER. 

finds him, and leads him through the senses to the higher things of 
reason, conscience, and communion with God. 

Jacob seems to have gone through the principles or foundations of 
faith in God and repentance towards him, which gave a character to 
the history of his grandfather and father, and to have entered upon 
the stage of spontaneous action. He had that inward feeling of spir- 
itual power which prompted the apostle to say, " I can do all things." 
Hence we find him dealing with Esau for the birthright, plotting with 
his mother for the blessing, erecting a pillar and vowing a vow at 
Bethel, overcoming Laban with his own weapons, and even now tak- 
ing the most prudent measures for securing a welcome from Esau on 
his return. He relied indeed on God, as was demonstrated in many 
of his words and deeds ; but the prominent feature of his character 
was a strong and firm reliance on himself. But this practical self- 
reliance, though naturally springing up in the new man and highly 
commendable in itself, was not yet in Jacob duly subordinated to that 
absolute reliance which ought to be placed in the Author of our being 
and our salvation. Hence he had been betrayed into intrusive, dubi- 
ous, and even sinister courses, which in the retributive providence of 
God had brought, and were yet to bring him, into many troubles and 
perplexities. The hazard of his present situation arose chiefly from his 
former unjustifiable practices towards his brother. He is now to learn 
the lesson of unreserved reliance on God. 

A man appeared to him in his loneliness ; one having the bodily form 
and substance of a man. Wrestled with him, — encountered him in the 
very point in which he was strong. He had been a taker by the heel 
from his very birth (25, 2G), and his subsequent life had been a con- 
stant and successful struggle with adversaries. And when he, the 
stranger, saw that he prevailed not over him. Jacob, true to his 
character, struggles while life remains, with this new combatant. He 
touched the socket of his thigh, so that it was wrenched out of joint. 
The thigh is the pillar of a man's strength, and its joint with the hip 
the seat of physical force for the wrestler. Let the thigh bone be 
thrown out of joint, and the man is utterly disabled. Jacob now finds 
that this mysterious wrestler has wrested from him, by one touch, all his 
might, and he can no longer stand alone. Without any support what- 
ever from himself, he hangs upon the conqueror, and in that condition 
learns by experience the practice of sole reliance on one mightier than 
himself. This is the turning-point in this strange drama. Henceforth 
Jacob now feels himself strong, not in himself, but in the Lord, and in 



GEN. XXXn. 41 6 

the power of his might. What follows is merely the explication and 
the consequence of this bodily conflict. 

And he, the Mighty Stranger, said, Let me go, for the dawn ariseth. 
The time for other avocations is come : let me go. He does not shake 
off the clinging grasp of the now disabled Jacob, but only calls upon 
him to relax his grasp. And he, Jacob, said, I will not let thee go ex- 
cept thou bless me. Despairing now of his own strength, he is Jacob 
still : he declares his determination to cling on until his conqueror bless 
him. He now knows he is in the hand of a higher power, who can 
disable and again enable, who can curse and also bless. He knows 
himself also to be now utterly helpless without the healing, quickening, 
protecting power of his victor, and, though he die in the effort, he will 
not let him go without receiving this blessing. Jacob's sense of his 
total debility and utter defeat is now the secret of his power with his 
friendly vanquisher. He can overthrow all the prowess of the self- 
reliant, but he cannot resist the earnest entreaty of the helpless. 

28—30. What is thy name ? He reminds him of his former self, Ja- 
cob, the supplanter, the self-reliant, self-seeking. But now he is disa- 
bled, dependent on another, and seeking a blessing from another, and 
for all others as well as himself. No more Jacob shall thy name be 
called, but Israel, — a prince of God, in God, with God. In a per- 
sonal conflict, depending on thyself, thou wert no match for God. But 
in prayer, depending on another, thou hast prevailed with God and 
with men. The new name is indicative of the new nature which has 
now come to its perfection of development in Jacob. Unlike Abra- 
ham, who received his new name once for all, and was never afterwards 
called by the former one, Jacob will hence be called now by the one 
and now by the other, as the occasion may serve. For he was called 
from the womb (xxv. 23), and both names have a spiritual significance 
for two different aspects of the child of God, according to the apostle's 
paradox, " Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it 
is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure " 
(Phil. ii. 12, 13). Tell noiv thy name. Disclose to me thy nature. This 
mysterious Being intimates by his reply that Jacob was to learn his 
nature, so far as he yet required to know it, from the event that had 
just occurred ; and he was well acquainted with his name. And he 
blessed Mm there. He had the power of disabling the self-sufficient 
creature, of upholding that creature when unable to stand, of answering 
prayer, of conferring a new name, with a new phase of spiritual life, and 
of blessing with a. bodily renovation, and with spiritual capacity for 



414 JACOB WRESTLES US PRAYER. 

being a blessing to mankind. After all this, Jacob could not any longer 
doubt who he was. There are, then, three acts in this dramatic scene : 
first, Jacob wrestling with the Omnipresent in the form of a man, in 
which he is signally defeated ; second, Jacob importunately supplicating 
Jehovah, in which he prevails as a prince of God ; third, Jacob re- 
ceiving the blessing of a new name, a new development of spiritual life, 
and a new capacity for bodily action. 

31-33. Peniel, — the face of God. The reason of this name is 
assigned in the sentence, / have seen God face to face. He is at first 
called a man. Hosea terms him the angel (xii. 4, 5 (3, 4). And 
here Jacob names him God. Hence some men, deeply penetrated with 
the ineffable grandeur of the divine nature, are disposed to resolve the 
first act at least into an impression on the imagination. We do not 
pretend to define with undue nicety the mode of this wrestling. And 
we are far from saying that every sentence of Scripture is to be under- 
stood in a literal sense. But until some cogent reason be assigned, we do 
not feel at liberty to depart from the literal sense in this instance. 
The whole theory of a revelation from God to man is founded upon 
the principle that God can adapt himself to the apprehension of the 
being whom he has made in his own image. This principle we accept, 
and we dare not limit its application further than the demonstrative 
laws of reason and conscience demand. If God walk in the garden 
with Adam, expostulate with Cain, give a specification of the ark to 
Noah, partake of the hospitality of Abraham, take Lot by the hand to 
deliver him from Sodom, we cannot affirm that he may not, for a wor- 
thy end, enter into a bodily conflict with Jacob. These various mani- 
festations of God to man differ only in degree. If we admit any one, 
we are bound by parity of reason to accept all the others. 

We have also already noted the divine method of dealing with man. 
He proceeds from the known to the unknown, from the simple to the 
complex, from the material to the spiritual, from the sensible to the 
super-sensible. So must he do, until he have to deal with a world of 
philosophers. And even then, and only then, will his method of teach- 
ing and dealing with men be clearly and fully understood. The more we 
advance in the philosophy of spiritual things, the more delight will we 
feel in discerning the marvellou s analogy and intimate nearness of the 
outward to the inward, and the material to the spiritual world. We have 
only to bear in mind that in man there is a spirit as well as a body ; 
and in this outward wrestling of man with man we have a token of 
the inward wrestling of spirit with spirit, and therefore an experimen- 



GEN. XXXIII. 415 

tal instance of that great conflict of the Infinite Being with the finite 
self, which grace has introduced into our fallen world, recorded here 
for the spiritual edification of the church on earth. 

My life is preserved. The feeling of conscience is, that no sinner 
can see the infinitely holy God and live. And he halted upon his thigh. 
The wrenching of the tendons and muscles was mercifully healed, yet 
so as to leave a permanent monument, in Jacob's halting gait, that God 
had overcome his self-will. 



LXI. JACOB AND ESAU MEET. — Gen. xxxiii. 

17. n'3D Sukkoth, booths, consisting of poles forming a roof covered 
with branches, leaves, or grass. 

19. llBcri Chamor, ass, red, heap, fra'MSp Qesitah, weighed or meas- 
ured. 'A/XV05, LXX. and Onk. 

XXXIII. 1. And Jacob lifted up his eyes, and looked, and 
behold, Esau came, and with him four hundred men. And 
lie divided the children unto Leah, and unto Rachel, and unto 
the two handmaids. 2. And he put the handmaids and their 
children foremost, and Leah and her children after, and Rachel 
and Joseph hindmost. 3. And he passed over before them, 
and bowed to the earth seven times, until he came near to his 
brother. 4. And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, 
and fell on his neck and kissed him : and they wept. 5. And 
he lifted up his eyes and saw the women and the children, and 
lie said, Who are these of thine ? And he said, The children 
whom God hath granted to thy servant. 6. And the hand- 
maids came near, they and their children, and they bowed. 
7. And Leah also came near and her children, and they bowed ; 
and after came near Joseph and Rachel, and they bowed. 8. 
And he said, What is all this horde of thine which I met ? 
And he said, To find grace in the eyes of my lord. 9. And 
Esau said, I have enough, my brother ; be that to thee that is 
thine. 10. And Jacob said, Nay, now, if now I have found 



416 JACOB AND ESAU MEET. 

grace in thine eyes, then receive my present from my hand ; 
for therefore have I seen thy face, as if I had seen the face of 
God, and thou wast pleased with me. 11. Take now my bless- 
ing that is brought to thee, because God has favored me and I 
have all. And he urged him, and he took it. 12. And he 
said, Let us set out and go, and I will go with thee. 13. And 
he said unto him, My lord knoweth that the children are ten- 
der, and the flocks and herds are suckling with me, and they 
will overdrive them one day and all the flock will die. 14. 
Let my lord now pass over before his servant, and I will lead 
on softly, at the pace of the cattle that are before me, and at 
the pace of the children, until I come unto my lord unto Seir. 
15. And Esau said, Let me now leave with thee of the men 
that are with me. And he said, Wherefore this ? Let me find 
grace in the eyes of my lord. 16. And Esau returned that 
day on his way to Seir. 

1 7. And Jacob journeyed to Sukkoth, and built him a house : 
and for his cattle he made booths ; therefore he called the 
name of the place Sukkoth. § 37. 

18. And Jacob went in peace to the city of Shekem, which 
is in the land of Kenaan, where he went from Padan-aram : 
and he pitched before the city. 19. And he bought a parcel 
of the field where he had spread his tent, at the hand of the 
sons of Hamor, the father of Shekem, for a hundred kesitahs. 
20. And he set up there an altar, and called it El-Elohe- 
Israel. # § 38. 

Jacob has a friendly interview with Esau, and reenters Kenaan. 

1-3. Jacob, on seeing Esau approach with his four hundred men, 
advances with circumspection and lowly obeisance. He divided his 
family, arranged them according to their preciousness in his eyes, and 
walks himself in front. In drawing near, he bows seven times, in to- 
ken of complete submission to his elder brother. 4-7. Esau, the wild 
hunter, is completely softened, and manifests the warmest affection, 
which is reciprocated by Jacob. The puncta extraordinaria over 
ttig^l (and kissed him), seemingly intimating a doubt of the reading 



GEN. XXXIII. 417 

or of the sincerity of Esau, are wholly unwarranted. Esau then ob- 
serves the women and children, and inquires who they are. Jacob 
replies that God had granted, graciously bestowed on him, these 
children. They approach in succession, and do obeisance. 8—11. Esau 
now inquires of the caravan or horde he had already met. He had 
heard the announcement of the servants ; but he awaited the confirma- 
tion of the master. To Jind grace in the eyes of my lord. Jacob values 
highly the good-will of his brother. The acceptance of this present is 
the security for that good-will, and for all the safety and protection 
which it involved. Esau at first declines the gift, but on being urged 
by Jacob accepts it, and thereby relieves Jacob of all his anxiety. His 
brother is now his friend indeed. Therefore have I seen thy face, that 
I might give thee this token of my affection. As if I had seen the face 
of God. The unexpected kindness with which his brother had re- 
ceived him was a type and proof of the kindness of the All-provident, 
by whom it had been added to all his other mercies. My blessing ; my 
gift which embodies my good wishes. I have all; not only enough, but 
all that I can wish. 

12-16. They now part for the present. I will go with thee;as>2io. 
escort or vanguard. Jacob explains that this would be inconvenient 
for both parties, as his tender children and suckling cattle could not 
keep pace with Esau's men, who were used to the road. At the pace 
of the cattle ; as fast as the business (naxbp) of travelling with cattle 
will permit. Unto Seir. Jacob is travelling to the land of Kenaan, 
and to the residence of his father. But, on arriving there, it will be 
his first duty to return the fraternal visit of Esau. The very circum- 
stance that he sent messengers to apprise his brother of his arrival, 
implies that he was prepared to cultivate friendly relations with him. 
Jacob also declines the offer of some of the men that Esau had with 
him. He had, doubtless, enough of hands to manage his remaining 
flock, and he now relied more than ever on the protection of that God 
who had ever proved himself a faithful and effectual guardian. 

17. Sukkoth was south of the Jabbok, and east of the Jordan, as we 
learn from Judges viii. 4-9. From the same passage it appears to 
have been nearer the Jordan than Penuel, which was at the ford of 
Jabbok. Sukkoth cannot therefore be identified with Sakut, which 
Eobinson finds on the other side of the Jordan, about ten miles north 
of the mouth of the Jabbok. And built him a house. This indicates 
a permanent residence. Booths, or folds, composed of upright stakes 
wattled together, and sheltered with leafy branches. The closed space 
53 



418 JACOB ANT) ESAU MEET. 

in the text is properly introduced here, to indicate the pause in the 
narrative, while Jacob sojourned in this place. Dinah, who is not 
noticed on the journey, was now not more than six years of age. Six 
or seven years more, therefore, must have elapsed before the melan- 
choly events of the next chapter took place. In the interval, Jacob 
may have visited his father, and even returned the visit of Esau. 

18-20. Jacob at length crosses the Jordan, and enters again the land 
of Kenaan. In peace. The original word (cbd safe, in peace) is 
rendered Shalem, the name of the town at which Jacob arrived, by the 
Septuagint. The rendering safe, or in peace, is here adopted, because 
(1) the word is to be taken as a common noun or adjective, unless 
there be a clear necessity for a proper name ; (2) the place was called 
Shekem in the time of Abraham (xii. 6), and the town is so designated 
in the thirty-fifth chapter (v. 4) ; and (3) the statement that Jacob 
arrived in safety accounts for the additional clauses, " which is in the 
land of Kenaan," and " when he went from Padan-aram," and is in 
accordance with the promise (xxviii. 21) that he would return in peace. 
If, however, the Salim found by Robinson to the west of Nablous be 
the present town, it must be called the city of Shekem, because it be- 
longed to the Shekem mentioned in the following verse and chapter. 
Pitched before the city. Jacob did not enter into the city, because his flocks 
and herds could not find accommodation there, and he did not want to 
come into close contact with the inhabitants. He bought a parcel of the 
field. He is anxious to have a place he may call his own, where he 
may have a permanent resting-place. For a hundred kesitahs. The 
kesitah may have been a piece of silver or gold, of a certain weight, 
equal in value to a lamb (see Gesenius). El-Elohe-Israel. Jacob 
consecrates his ground by the erection of an altar. He calls it the 
altar of the Mighty One, the God of Israel, in which he signalizes the 
omnipotence of him who had brought him in safety to the land of 
promise through many perils, the new name by which he himself had 
been lately designated, and the blessed communion which now existed 
between the Almighty and himself. This was the very spot where 
Abraham, about one hundred and eighty-five years ago, built the first 
altar he erected in the promised land (xii. 6, 7). It is now consecra- 
ted anew to the God of promise. 



GEN. xxxiy. 419 



LXII. DINAH'S DISHONOR. — Gen. xxxiv. 

XXXIV. 1. Then went out Dinah, the daughter of Leah, 
whom she bare unto Jacob, to see the daughters of the land. 

2. And Shekem, son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the land, 
saw her ; and he took her, and lay with her, and humbled her. 

3. And his soul clave unto Dinah, daughter of Jacob ; and he 
loved the damsel, and spake to the heart of the damsel. 4. 
And Shekem said unto Hamor his father, saying, Get me this 
damsel to wife. 5. And Jacob heard that he had defiled Di- 
nah his daughter: and his sons were with his cattle in the 
field : and Jacob held his peace until they were come. 

6. And Hamor, the father of Shekem, came out unto Jacob 
to speak with him. 7. And the sons of Jacob came from the 
field when they heard it : and the men were grieved, and were 
very wroth, because he had wrought folly in Israel, to lie with 
the daughter of Jacob ; which ought not to be done. 8. And 
Hamor spake with them, saying, Shekem, my son, his soul 
clingeth to your daughter ; give her now to him to wife. 9. 
And intermarry ye with us ; your daughters give unto us, 
and our daughters take unto you. 10. And ye shall dwell 
with us : and the land shall be before you ; dwell and trade 
therein, and get possessions therein. 11. And Shekem said 
unto her father and unto her brethren, Let me find grace in 
your eyes, and what ye shall say unto me I will give. 12. 
Multiply upon me much dowry and gift, and I will give ac- 
cording as ye shall say unto me : and give me the damsel to 
wife. 13. And the sons of Jacob answered Shekem and Ha- 
mor his father with deceit, and spake : because he had defiled 
Dinah their sister. 14. And they said unto them, We cannot 
do this thing, to give our sister to a man that hath a foreskin ; 
for that were a reproach unto us. 15. Only in this will we 
consent unto you, if ye will be as we, to be circumcised every 
male of you. 16. Then will we give our daughters unto you, 



420 DINAH'S DISHONOK. 

and we will take your daughters to us ; and we will dwell 
with you, and become one people. 17. And if ye will not 
hearken unto us to be circumcised, then will we take our 
daughter and be gone. 

18. And their words were good in the eyes of Hamor, and 
of Shekem, Hamor's son. 19. And the young man delayed 
not to do the thing, because he delighted in the daughter of 
Jacob : and he was more honorable than all the house of his 
father. 20. Then went Hamor and Shekem his son unto the 
gate of their city, and spake to the men of their city, saying, 
21. These men are peaceable with us : and let them dwell in 
the land, and trade therein ; and the land, behold, is wide 
enough before them : their daughters let us take to us for 
wives, and our daughters let us give to them. 22. Only herein 
will the men consent to us to dwell with us, to become one 
people, if every male of us be circumcised, as they are circum- 
cised. 23. Their flocks, their property, all their cattle, shall 
they not be ours ? Only let us consent unto them, and they 
will dwell with us. 24. Then hearkened unto Hamor and 
unto Shekem his son all that came out of the gate of his city : 
and every male was circumcised ; all that came out of the gate 
of his city. 

25. And it came to pass on the third day, when they were 
sore, that two of Jacob's sons, Simon and Levi, Dinah's breth- 
ren, took each man his sword, and went unto the city boldly, 
and slew every male. 26. And Hamor and Shekem his son 
they slew with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of 
Shekem's house, and came out. 27. The sons of Jacob went 
upon the slain, and spoiled the city, because they had denied 
their sister. 28. Their sheep and their oxen and their asses 
and that which was in the city and that which was in the field 
they took. 29. And all their wealth and all their little ones 
and their wives took they captive and spoiled, and all that 
was in the house. 30. And Jacob said to Simon and to Levi, 
Ye have troubled me, to make me stink to the inhabitant of 



GEN. XXXIV. 421 

the land, the Kenaanite and the Perizzite : and I am a few- 
men, and they will gather against me and smite me, and I 
shall be destroyed, I and my house. 31. And they said, 
Should he deal with our sister as with a harlot ? 1 29. 

This chapter records the rape of Dinah and the revenge of her 
brothers. 

1-5. Dinah went out to see the daughters of the land. The Jew- 
ish doctors of a later period fix the marriageable age of a female at 
twelve years and a day. It is probable that Dinah was in her thir- 
teenth year when she went out to visit the daughters of the land. Six 
or seven years, therefore, must have been spent by Jacob between 
Sukkoth, where he abode some time, and the neighborhood of Shekem, 
where he had purchased a piece of ground. If we suppose Dinah to 
have been born in the same year with Joseph, who was in his seven- 
teenth year at the time of his being sold as a bondslave (xxxvii. 2), the 
events of this chapter must have occurred in the interval between the 
completion of her twelfth and that of her sixteenth year. Shekem. 
This name is hereditary in the family, and had taken hold in the lo- 
cality before the time of Abraham. The Hivite was a descendant of 
Kenaan. We find this tribe now occupying the district where the 
Kenaanite was in possession at a former period (xii. 6). 3. Spake to 
the heart of the damsel. After having robbed her of her honor, he 
promises to recognize her as his wife, provided he can gain the consent 
of her relatives. Shekem spake unto his father Hamor. He is in ear- 
nest about this matter. Jacob held his peace. He was a stranger in 
the land, and surrounded by a flourishing tribe, who were evidently 
unscrupulous in their conduct. 

6-17. A conference takes place between the parties. Hamor and 
Jacob, the parents on both sides, are the principals in the negotiation. 
7. The sons of Jacob, being brothers of the injured damsel, are present, 
according to custom. Wrought f ally in Israel ; a standing phrase from 
this time forward for any deed that was contrary to the sanctity which 
ought to characterize God's holy people. . Israel is here used to desig- 
nate the descendants of Israel, the peculiar people. 8-10. Hamor 
makes his proposal. Shekem, my son. These words are a nominative 
pendent, for which " his soul " is substituted. Pie proposes a political 
alliance or amalgamation of the two tribes, to be sealed and actually 
effected by intermarriage. He offers to make them joint-possessors of 
the soil, and of the rights of dwelling, trading, and acquiring property. 



422 DINAH'S DISHONOR. 

11, 12. Shekem now speaks with becoming deference and earnestness. 
He offers any amount of dowry, or bridal presents, and of gift to the 
mother and brothers of the bride. It must be acknowledged that the 
father and the son were disposed to make whatever amends they could 
for the grievous offence that had been committed. 13-17. The sons 
of Jacob answer with deceit. They are burning with resentment of 
the wrong that " ought not to have been done," and that cannot now be 
fully repaired. Yet they are in presence of a superior force, and 
therefore resort to deceit. And spake. This goes along with the pre- 
vious verb " answered," and is meant to have the same qualification 
" with deceit." The last clause of the verse then assigns the cause of 
this deceitful dealing. 14-17. Their speech, for the matter of it, is rea- 
sonable. They cannot intermarry with the uncircumcised. Only on con- 
dition that every male be circumcised will they consent. On these terms 
they promise to " become one people " with them. Otherwise they take 
their daughter, and depart. Our daughter. They here speak as a 
family or race, and therefore call Dinah their daughter, though her 
brothers are the speakers. 

18-24. Hamor and Shekem accept the terms, and forthwith proceed 
to carry them into effect. It is testified of Shekem, that he delayed 
not to do the thing, and that he was more honorable than all his house. 
20-23. They bring the matter before their fellow-citizens, and urge 
them to adopt the rite of circumcision, on the ground that the men are 
peaceable, well-conducted, and they and their cattle and goods would 
be a valuable addition to the common wealth of their tribe. Hence it 
appears that the population was still thin, that the neighboring territory 
was sufficient for a much larger number than its present occupants, and 
that a tribe found a real benefit in an accession to his numbers. 24. 
The people were persuaded to comply with the terms proposed. There 
is nothing said here of the religious import of the rite, or of any diver- 
sity of worship that may have existed between the two parties. But 
it is not improbable that the Shekemites were prepared for mutual 
toleration, or even for the adoption of the religion of Israel in its 
external forms, though not perhaps to the exclusion of their own he- 
reditary customs. It is also possible that the formal acknowledgment 
of the one true God was not yet extinct. Circumcision has been in 
use among the Egyptians, Colchians (Herod, ii. 104), and other east- 
ern nations ; but when and how introduced we are not informed. The 
present narrative points out one way in which it may have spread from 
nation to nation. 



GEN. XXXV. 423 

25-31. Simon and Levi, at the head no doubt of all their father's 
men, now fall upon the Shekemites, when feverish with the circum- 
cision, and put them to the sword. Simon and Levi were the sons of 
Leah, and therefore full brothers of Dinah. If Dinah was of the 
same year as Joseph, they would be respectively seven and six years 
older than she was. If she was in her thirteenth year, they would 
therefore be respectively in their twentieth and nineteenth years, and 
therefore fitted by age and passion for such an enterprise. 27-29. All 
the sons of Jacob joined in the sacking of the city. They seized all 
their cattle and goods, and made captives of their wives and little ones. 

30. Jacob is greatly distressed by this outrage, which is equally con- 
trary to his policy and his humanity. He sets before his sons, in this 
expostulation, the danger attendant upon such a proceeding. The 
Kenaanite and the Perizzite, whom Abraham found in the land on his 
return from Egypt (xiii. 7). I am a few men, — men of number that 
might easily be counted. / here denotes the family or tribe with all 
its dependents. When expanded, therefore, it is, " I and my house." 

31. Simon and Levi have their reply. It justifies the retrit^ition which 
has fallen on the Shekemites for this and all their other crimes. But 
it does not justify the executioners for taking the law into their own 
hands, or proceeding by fraud and indiscriminate slaughter. The em- 
ployment of circumcision, too, which was the sign of the covenant of 
grace, as a means of deception, was a heinous aggravation of their 
offence. 



LXIII. DEATH OF ISAAC. — Gen. xxxv. 

8. irpft Deborah, bee. MM "p^st Allon-bakuth, oak of weeping. 
16. »T^Q3 length, stretch. A certain but unknown distance, a stadium 
or furlong (Jos.) a hippodrome (Sept.) which was somewhat longer, 
a mile (Kimchi). n*Bx Ephrath, fruitful or ashy. 

18. ^iK""^ Ben-oni, son of my pain. "pa^SS Binjamin, son of the 
right hand. 

19. tnb rva Beth-lechem, house of bread. 
21. T1$ 'Eder, flock, fold. 

XXXV. 1. And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to 
Bethel, and dwell there : and make there an altar to the God 



424 DEATH OF ISAAC. 

that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of 
Esau thy brother. 2. Then said Jacob unto his house, and to 
all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are 
among you, and be clean, and change your garments. 3. And 
let us arise and go up to Bethel ; and I will there make an 
altar to the God who answered me in the day of my distress, 
and was with me in the way that I went. 4. And they gave 
unto Jacob all the strange gods that were in their hand, and 
the rings that were in their ears ; and Jacob hid them under 
the oak which was by Shekem. 5. And they set out : and the 
terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, 
and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob. 6. And Jacob 
went to Luz, which is in the land of Kenaan, that is, Bethel, 
he and all the people that were with him. 7. And he built 
there an altar, and called the place El-beth-cl ; because there 
God revealed himself unto him, when he fled from the face of 
his brother. 8. And Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died, and was 
buried beneath Bethel, under the oak ; and the name of it was 
called Allon-bakuth. 1 30. 

9. And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he went out 
of Padan-aram, and blessed him. 10. And God said unto 
him, Thy name is Jacob : thy name shall not be called any 
more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name. And he called his 
name Israel. 11. And God said unto him, I am God Almighty ; 
be fruitful and multiply ; a nation and a congregation of na- 
tions shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins. 

12. And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee 
will I give it ; and to thy seed after thee will I give the land. 

13. And God went up from him, in the place where he talked 
with him. 14. And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where 
he talked with him, a pillar of stone : and he poured thereon 
a drink offering, and poured thereon oil. 15. And Jacob called 
the name of the place where God spake with him, Beth-el. 

16. And they set out from Beth-el; and there was yet a 
stretch of the land to go into Ephrath ; and Rachel travailed 



GEN. XXXV. 425 

and had hard labor. 17. And it came to pass, when she was in 
hard labor, that the midwife said unto her, Fear not, for this 
is also to thee a son. 18. And it came to pass, as her soul was 
departing when she died, that she called his name Ben-oni ; 
and his father called him Benjamin. 19. And Rachel died, 
and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Beth-lehem. 
20. And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave ; that is the pillar 
of Rachel's grave unto this day. 21. And Israel set out and 
spread his tent beyond the tower of Eder. 22. And it came to 
pass, when Israel dwelt in the land, that Reuben went and lay 
with Bilhah his father's concubine : and Israel heard it. 131. 
And the sons of Jacob were twelve. 23. The sons of Leah : 
Jacob's first-born, Reuben, and Simon and Levi and Judah 
and Issakar and Zebulun. 24. The sons of Rachel : Joseph 
and Benjamin. 25. And the sons of Bilhah, Rachel's hand- 
maid : Dan and Naphtali. 26. And the sons of Zilpah, Leah's 
handmaid : Gad and Asher: these are the sons of Jacob, who 
were born to him in Padan-aram. 27. And Jacob went unto 
Isaac his father to Mamre, the city of Arba, which is Hebron, 
where Abraham and Isaac sojourned. 28. And the days of 
Isaac were a hundred and eighty years. 29. And Isaac expired, 
and died, and was gathered unto his peoples, old and full of 
days : and Esau and Jacob his sons buried him. 1 32. 

This chapter contains the return of Jacob to his father's house, and 
then appends the death of Isaac. 

1—8. Jacob returns to Bethel. And God said unto Jacob. He re- 
ceives the direction from God. He had now been six years lingering 
in Sukkoth and Sliekem. There may have been some intercourse 
between him and his father's house during this interval. The presence 
of Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, in his family, is a plain intimation of 
this. But Jacob seems to have turned aside to Shekem, either to visit 
the spot where Abraham first erected an altar to the Lord, or to seek 
pasture for his numerous flocks. Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell 
there. In his perplexity and terror the Lord comes to his aid. He 
reminds him of his former appearance to him at that place, and directs 
him to erect an altar there. This was Abraham's second resting-place 
54 



426 DEATH OF ISAAC. 

in the land. He who had there appeared to Jacob as the Jehovah, the 
God of Abraham and Isaac, is now described as El, the Mighty One, 
probably in allusion to Bethel (house of El), which contains this name, 
and was at that time applied by Jacob himself to the place. 2, 3. His 
house ; his wives and children. All that were with him ; his men-ser- 
vants and maid-servants. The strange gods, belonging to the stranger or 
the strange land. These include the teraphim, which Rachel had secreted, 
and the rings which were worn as amulets or charms. Be clean ; cleanse 
the body, in token of the cleaning of your souls. Change your gar- 
ments ; put on your best attire, befitting the holy occasion. The God, 
in contradistinction to the strange gods already mentioned. 4. Hid 
them ; buried them. The oak which was hy Shekem. This may have 
been the oak of Moreh, under which Abraham pitched his tent (xii. 
6). 5-7. The terror of God; a dread awakened in their breast by some 
indication of the divine presence being with Jacob. The patriarch 
seems to have retained possession of the land he had purchased and 
gained by conquest, in this place. His flocks are found there very 
shortly after this time (xxxvii. 12), he alludes to it, and disposes of it 
in his interview with Joseph and his sons (xlviii. 22), and his well is 
there to this day. Luz, which is in the land of Kenaan. This seems 
at first sight to intimate that there was a Luz elsewhere, and to have 
been added by the revising prophet to determine the place here intended. 
Luz means an almond tree, and may have designated many a place. 
But the reader of Genesis could have needed no such intimation, as 
Jacob is clearly in the land of Kenaan, going from Shekem to Hebron. 
It seems rather to call attention again (xxxiii. 18) to the fact that 
Jacob has returned from Padan-aram to the land of promise. The 
name Luz still recurs, as the almond tree may still be flourishing. And 
he built there an altar, and called the place El-beih-el. Thus has Jacob 
obeyed the command of God, and begun the payment of the vow he 
made twenty-six years before at this place (xxviii. 20-22). There 
God revealed himself unto him. The verb here 1^3 is plural in the 
Masoretic Hebrew, and so it was in the copy of Onkelos. The Sam. 
and the Sept. have the singular. The reading is therefore various. 
The original was probably singular, and may have been so even with 
its present letters. If not, this is one of the few instances in which 
Elohim is construed grammatically with a plural verb. 8. Deborah 
dies in the family in which she began life. She is buried under " the 
well-known oak" at Bethel. Jacob drops a natural tear of sorrow 
over the grave of this faithful servant, and hence the oak is called the 



GEN. XXXV. 427 

oak of weeping. It is probable that Rebekah was already dead, since 
otherwise we should not expect to find Deborah transferred to Jacob's 
household. She may not have lived to see her favorite son on his 
return. 

9-15. God appears to Jacob again at Bethel, and renews the prom- 
ise made to him there (xxviii. 13, 14). Again. The writer here 
refers to the former meeting of God with Jacob at Bethel, and thereby 
proves himself cognizant of the fact, and of the record already made 
of it. When he went out of Padan-aram. This corroborates the 
explanation of the clause, v. 6, "which is in the land of Kenaan." 
Bethel was the last point in this land that was noticed in his flight from 
Esau. His arrival at the same point indicates that he has now returned 
from Padan-aram to the land of Kenaan. He called his name Israel. 
At Bethel he renews the change of name, to indicate that the meetings 
here were of equal moment in Jacob's spiritual life with that at Pen- 
uel. It implies also that this life had been declining in the interval 
between Penuel and Bethel, and had now been revived by the call of 
God to go to Bethel, and by the interview. The renewal of the nam- 
ing aptly expresses this renewal of spiritual life. 11, 12. / am God 
Almighty. So he proclaimed himself before to Abraham (xvii. 1). 
Be fruitful, and multiply. Abraham and Isaac had each only one son 
of promise. But now the time of increase is come. Jacob has been 
blessed with eleven sons, and at least one daughter. And now he 
receives the long-promised blessing, " be fruitful and multiply." From 
this time forth the multiplication of Israel is rapid. In twenty-six 
years after this time he goes down into Egypt with seventy souls, 
besides the wives of his married descendants, and two hundred and ten 
years after that Israel goes out of Egypt numbering about one million 
eight hundred thousand. A nation and a congregation of nations, 
such as were then known in the world, had at the last date come of 
him, and " kings " were to follow in due time. The land, as well as 
the seed, is again promised. 13-15. Jacob now, according to his wont, 
perpetuates the scene of divine manifestation with a monumental stone. 
God went up ; as he went up from Abraham (xvii. 22) after a similar 
conference with him. He had now spoken to Jacob face to face, as he 
communed with Abraham. A pillar in the place where he talked 
with him, a consecrated monument of this second interview, not in a 
dream as before, but in a waking vision. On this he pours a drink- 
offering of wine, and then anoints it with oil. Here, for the first time, 
we meet with the libation. It is possible there was such an offering 



428 t DEATH OF ISAAC. 

when Melkizedec brought forth bread and wine, though it is not 
recorded. The drink-offering is the complement of the meat-offering, 
and both are accompaniments of the sacrifice which is offered on 
the altar. They are in themselves expressive of gratitude and devo- 
tion. Wine and oil are used to denote the quickening and sanctifying 
power of the Spirit of God. Bethel. "We are now familiar with the 
repetition of the naming of persons and places. This place was 
already called Bethel by Jacob himself; it is most likely that Abraham 
applied this name to it : and for aught we know, some servant of the 
true God, under the Noachic covenant, may have originated the name. 

16-22a. On the journey, Rachel dies at the birth of her second 
son. A stretch. It was probably a few furlongs. 17. Fear not. The 
cause for encouragement was that the child was born, and that it was a 
son. Rachel's desire and hope expressed at the birth of Joseph were 
therefore fulfilled (xxx. 24). 18. When her soul was departing. This 
phrase expresses not annihilation, but merely change of place. It pre- 
supposes the perpetual existence of the soul. Ben-oni, son of my pain, 
is the natural expression of the departing Rachel. Benjamin. The 
right hand is the seat of power. The son of the right hand is there- 
fore the child of power. He gave power to his father, as he was his 
twelfth son, and so completed the number of the holy family. 19, 20. 
Ephrath and Beth-lehem are names the origin of which is not recorded. 
The pillar of Rachel's grave. Jacob loves the monumental stone. 
Unto this day. This might have been written ten or twenty years 
after the event, and therefore before Jacob left Kenaan (see on xix. 
37). The grave of Rachel was well known in the time of Samuel 
(1 Sam. x. 2), and the Kubbet Rahil, dome or tomb of Rachel, stands 
perhaps on the identical spot, about an English mile north of Beth- 
lehem. 

21, 22. Eder. The tower of the flock was probably a watch-tower 
where shepherds guarded their flocks by night. It was a mile (Je- 
rome) or more south of Bethlehem. Here Reuben was guilty of the 
shameful deed which came to the knowledge of his father, and occa- 
sions the allusion in xlix. 4. He was by this act degraded from his 
position in the holy family. The division of the open parashah in the 
text here is more in accordance with the sense than that of the verse. 

22b-31. Jacob's return and his father's death. The family of Jacob 
is now enumerated, because it has been completed by the birth of Ben- 
jamin. In Padan-aram. This applies to all of them but Benjamin ; 
an exception which the reader of the context can make for himself. 



GEK XXXV. 429 

27. Jacob at length arrives with his whole establishment at Hebron, 
the third notable station occupied by Abraham in the land (xiii. 18). 
Here also his father sojourns. 28, 29. The life of Isaac is now closed. 
Joseph must have been, at the time of Jacob's return, in his thirteenth 
year, and therefore his father in his hundred and fourth. Isaac was 
consequently in his hundred and sixty-third year. He survived the 
return of Jacob to Hebron about seventeen years, and the sale of 
Joseph his grandson about thirteen. Esau and Jacob his sons buried 
him. Hence we learn that Esau and Jacob continued to be on broth- 
erly terms from the day of their meeting at the ford of Jabbok. 

This chapter closes the ninth of the pieces or documents marked off 
by the phrase " these are the generations." Its opening event was the 
birth of Isaac (xxv. 19), which took place in the hundreth year of 
Abraham, and therefore seventy-five years before his death recorded 
in the seventh document. As the seventh purports to be the genera- 
tions of Terah (xi. 27) and relates to Abraham who was his offspring, 
so the present document, containing the generations of Isaac, refers 
chiefly to the sons of Isaac, and especially to Jacob, as the heir of 
promise. Isaac as a son learned obedience to his father in that great 
typical event of his life, in which he was laid on the altar, and figura- 
tively sacrificed in the ram which was his substitute. This was the 
great significant passage in his life, after which he retires into compar- 
ative tranquillity. 



SECTION XII.— JACOB. 



LXIV. HISTORY OF ESAU. — Gen. xxxvi. 

2. iTQS^bina Oholibamah, tent of the high place. T\y$ e Anah, an- 
swering. "p'SSS Tsib'on, dyer, colored. 

4. TS^x Eliphaz, God of strength. Vk Wi Re'uel, friend of God. 

5. EHSH Je'ush, haste. ofe»2 Ja'lam, hiding, rfyp Qorach, ice. 

11. '^■'Pi Teman,nyi^kwimaw. "rais Omar, eloquent. 132 Tseplio, 
watch. tDSni'a Ga'tam, touch, tap Qenaz, hunting. 

12. 23 W Timna', restraint, p^os 'Amaleq, licking up, laboring. 

13. rna Nachath, ^'^ down, rest, pnj Zerach, rising (of light). 
?T2K3 Shammah, wasting. n-ra M\zzah,fear, sprinkling. 

20. I Bib Lotan, covering, veiled, baid Shobal, flowing, a shoot. 

21. ")im Dishon, a &mrf ©/* gazelle, fat. nsa Etser, s^cre. ygifl 
Dishan, threshing. 

22. iih Chori, troglodyte, DBirt Hemam, woase, commotion. 

23. "jibs? c Alvan, fo/£y. rns^ Manachatli, res£. ba^s c Ebal, stripped 
of leaves. 13b Shepho, 5are. Mix Onam, strong. 

24. h*K Ajjjah, cry, hawk. fio|; Ao£ springs. Not mules (t3in*S) 
nor giants (d^k). 

26. "j'j'erj Chemdan, pleasant, laiast Eshban, thought? •j'np.'i Jithran, 
^razTZ. "("3 Keran, /jar/? ? 

27 1^3 Bilhan, timid. 113? T Za'avan, troubled? "jj5S! ; 'Aqan, twist- 
ing. 

28. yis Aran, wild-goat ? 

82. 3?b3 Bela' devouring, hi'sa Be'or, forc^. Fia!TOi Dinhabah. 

33. sin Jobab, sAom£. 8T"iX3 Botsrah, fold, fort. 

34. db5H Chusham, Aas/c. 

35. Tin Hadad, breaking, shout. 113 Bedad, separation. mi3> 
Avith, twisting. 

36. f"?^sb Samlah, garment, itjslb'a Masreqah, vineyard. 

37. b-lNE Shaul, as£ec?. 

38. k ,:n brs Baal-chanan, fore? o/* yrace. 113335 'Akbor, mouse. 



GEN. XXXVI. 431 

39. Tin Iladar, honor. tea Pau, bleeting. \>*£&ty& Melietab c el, 
Cog? benefiting. "Hda Matred, jows/*. ant ia Me-zahab, wafer 0/ 

40. pry; Jethetb, a nail f 

41. nbx Elah, terebinth. )ivm Pinon, tf!ar&? 

42. ISM Mibtsar, fortress. 

43. fcspwg Magdiel, prince of God. dW e Iram, erne or naked. 

XXXVI. 1. And these are the generations of Esau, who 
is Edom. 2. Esau took his wives of the daughters of Kenaan : 
Adah, daughter of Elon the Hittite ; and Oholibamah, daugh- 
ter of Anah, daughter of Zibon the Hivite ; 3. And Basemath, 
Ishmael's daughter, sister of Nebaioth. 4. And Adah bare to 
Esau Eliphaz : and Basemath bare Reuel. 5. And Oholiba- 
mah bare Jeush and Jalam and Corah. These are the sons 
of Esau, who were born unto him in the land of Kenaan. 6. 
And Esau took his wives and his sons and his daughters, and 
all the souls of his house, and his cattle and all his beasts, 
and all his property which he had gained in the land of Ke- 
naan, and went unto a land apart from Jacob his brother. 7 
For their gaining was more than that they might dwell together; 
and the land of their sojournings could not bear them on 
account of their cattle. 8. Then dwelt Esau in mount Seir. 
Esau is Edom. 

9. And these are the generations of Esau, father of Edom, 
in mount Seir. 10. These are the names of Esau's sons : Eli- 
phaz, son of Adah, wife of Esau ; Reuel, son of Basemath, 
wife of Esau. 11. And the sons of Eliphaz were Teman, 
Omar, Zepho, and Gatam and Kcnaz. 12. And Timna was 
concubine to Eliphaz, Esau's son : and she bare to Eliphaz 
Amalek : these were the sons of Adah, Esau's wife. 13. And 
these are the sons of Reuel : Nahath and Zerah, Shammah 
and Mizzah : these were the sons of Basemath, Esau's wife. 
14. And these are the sons of Oholibamah, daughter of Anah, 
daughter of Zibon, Esau's wife; and she bare to Esau, Jeush 
and Jalam and Corah. 



432 HISTORY OF ESAU. 

15. These were dukes of the sons of Esau ; the sons of Eli- 
phaz, first-born of Esau, duke Teman, duke Omar, duke Zepho, 
duke Kenaz, 16. Duke Corah, duke Gatam, duke Amalek ; 
these were dukes of Eliphaz in the land of Edom : these are 
the sons of Adah. 17. And these are the sons of Reuel, Esau's 
son : duke Nahath, duke Zerah, duke Shammah, duke Mizzah ; 
these were dukes of Reuel in the land of Edom : these are the 
sons of Basemath, Esau's wife. 18. And these are the sons 
of Oholibamah, Esau's wife : duke Jeush, duke Jalam, duke 
Corah : these were dukes of Oholibamah, daughter of Anah, 
Esau's wife. 19. These are the sons of Esau, who is Edom ; 
and these their dukes. $ 39. 

20. These are the sons of Seir the Horite, who dwelt in the 
land: Lotan and Shobal and Zibon and Anah, 21. And 
Dishon and Ezer and Dishan : these are dukes of the Horite, 
sons of Seir in the land of Edom. 22. And the sons of Lotan 
were Hori and Hemam : and Lotan's sister was Timna. 23. 
And these are the sons of Shobal: Alvan and Manahath and 
Ebal, Shepho and Onam. 24. And these are the sons of 
Zibon, both Ajah and Anah : this is Anah who found the hot 
springs in the wilderness, as he fed the asses of Zibon his 
father. 25. And these are the sons of Anah, Dishon : and 
Oholibamah was the daughter of Anah. 26. And these are 
the sons of Dishon : Hemdan and Eshban and Ithran and 
Keran. 27. And these are the sons of Ezer: Bilhan and Zaa- 
van and Acan. 28. These are the sons of Dishan : Uz and 
Aran. 29. These were dukes of the Horite : duke Lotan, duke 
Shobal, duke Zibon, duke Anah. 30. Duke Dishon, duke 
Ezer, duke Dishan : these were dukes of the Horite, according 
to their dukes, in the land of Seir. 1 33. 

31. And these are the kings that reigned in the land of 
Edom, before a king reigned over the children of Israel. 32. 
And Bela, son of Beor, reigned in Edom : and the name of his 
city was Dinhabah. 33. And Bela died, and in his stead 
reigned Jobab, son of Zerah of Bozrah. 34. And Jobab died, 



GEN. XXXVI. 433 

and in his stead reigned Husham, of the land of the Teman- 
ite. 85. And Husham died, and in his stead reigned Hadad, 
son of Bedad, who smote Midian in the field of Moab ; and 
the name of his city was Avith. 36. And Hadad died, and in 
his stead reigned Samlah of Masrecah. 37. And Samlah died, 
and in his stead reigned Saul of Rehoboth by the river. 38. 
And Saul died, and in his stead reigned Baal-hanan, son of 
Akbor. 89. And Baal-hanan, son of Akbor, died, and in his 
stead reigned Hadar, and the name of his city was Pau ; and 
his wife's name Mehetabel, daughter of Matred, daughter of 
Mezahab. 

40. And these are the names of the dukes of Esau after 
their families, after their places, by their names : duke Timna, 
duke Alvah, duke Jetheth, 41. Duke Oholibamah, duke 
Elah, duke Pinon, 42. Duke Kenaz, duke Teman, duke Mib- 
zah, 43. Duke Magdiel, duke Iram : these are the dukes of 
Edom, according to their habitations, in the land of their pos- 
sessions : this is Esau, father of Edom. 9 ffT 34. 

The two documents that now remain run parallel to one another in 
point of time. They relate to the two sons of Isaac ; and, as usual, 
the record of the one, who, though first born, falls into the ranks of 
heathenism, is first given briefly, and thus dismissed, in order to make 
way for the more elaborate history of the chosen seed. The latter 
document does not terminate with the book of Genesis. We do not 
again meet with the phrase, " and these are the generations," until we 
come to the third chapter of Numbers, and even then it is only applied 
in a subordinate sense to the family of Aaron and Moses, and the 
priesthood connected with them. Hence the latter document may be 
regarded as extending through the remaining books of the Pentateuch. 
The former may therefore be of like extent in regard to time. The 
last of the eight kings, of whom it is not said that he died, seems to 
have been the contemporary of Moses, who made application to him 
for leave to pass through his land. If this be so, it follows that the 
remainder of Genesis comes immediately from the hand of Moses ; a 
result which is in accordance with other indications that have presented 
themselves in the previous part of this book. This interesting monument 
.55 



434 HISTORY OF ESAU. 

of antiquity, from its extreme brevity, leaves many questions which it 
suggests to our minds unanswered, and in the absence of all other 
information, we must rest contented with the meagre notices of the race 
of Edom which it has furnished. And where we cannot ascertain the 
actual connection of the events and individuals mentioned, we must be 
satisfied with any possible relation in which they may be placed. The 
notice, notwithstanding its brevity, we shall find to be arranged with 
admirable precision. 

1-8. This passage is introductory, and records the settlement of 
Esau with his family in Mount Seir. 1. Esau, who is Edom. This 
is a fact of which we were informed in the previous history (xxv. 25, 
30). It is mentioned here because the latter name gave origin to the 
national designation ; namely, the Edomites or Idumaeans. The occur- 
rence of this explanatory or definitive clause here and in other parts 
of this chapter throws light on the manner in which this work was 
composed. Such parenthetical explanations are sometimes ascribed 
to the reviser or redactor of the original text. And to this there is no 
theoretic objection, provided the reviser be allowed to be of equal au- 
thority with the original author, and the explanatory addition be neces- 
sary for the reader of a later period, and could not have been furnished 
by the original author. Otherwise, such a mode of accounting for 
these simple clauses is unnecessary, and therefore unwarrantable. The 
present case the writer has already explained, and the latest reader 
requires the clause no more than the earliest, as he is aware from the 
previous notices that Esau is Edom. We are thus led to regard these 
explanatory clauses as marks of an early or artless simplicity of style, 
and not as any clear or certain traces of revision. 

2-5. Esau took his wives. From the word his we conclude that 
this sentence does not refer to his marrying these wives, but to his 
taking them with him when he removed from Kenaan. Hence the 
sentence, after being interrupted by the intervening particulars, is 
resumed and completed in the sixth verse. The date of this event is 
therefore some time after Jacob's flight to Padan-aram, and before his 
return. The daughter of Ishmael he only married after Jacob's de- 
parture, and by her he had one son who was born in Kenaan. We 
may therefore suppose that, about eighteen years after Jacob's flight, 
Isaac had assigned to Esau a sufficient stock of cattle and goods for a 
separate establishment, the extent of Esau's portion and of that which 
Isaac had reserved for Jacob had become so great as to demand pas- 
ture grounds widely removed from one another, and Esau's former 



gen. xxxvi. 435 

habits and his last matrimonial alliances had drawn him towards Mount 
Seir. He married his first wives when he was forty years of age 
(xxvi. 34), and as Jacob was seventy-seven when he left his home, at 
eighteen years after that date, Esau had been fifty-five years married 
to his first two wives, and somewhat less than eighteen to Ishmael's 
daughter. 

Of the daughters of Kenaan. This refers to the two following 
wives mentioned in this verse, and distinguishes them from the third, 
mentioned in the following verse, who is of the family of Ishmael. 
Adah, daughter of Eton the Hittite. On comparing the account of his 
two wives whom he married at forty with the present, the first, namely, 
Judith, daughter of Beeri the Hittite, no longer appears either by her 
own name, that of her father, or that of her tribe. Hence we presume 
that in the course of the past forty-seven years she has died without 
male issue. This presumption is favored by the circumstance that the 
daughter of Elon the Hittite is now advanced into the first place. If 
it seems to any one undesirable to make any presumption of this kind, 
we have only to say that in the absence of the connecting links in a 
historical statement like this, we must make some supposition to show 
the possibility of the events related. The presumption we have made 
seems easier and therefore more likely than that the names of the indi- 
vidual, the father and the tribe, should be all different, and the order 
of the two wives reversed, and yet that the same person should be 
intended ; and hence we have adopted it as a possible arrangement, 
leaving to others the preference of any other possibility that may be 
suggested. For after all it should be remembered that testimony only 
could determine what were the actual' circumstances. She who was 
formerly called Basemath appears here with the name of Adah. At 
a time when proper names were still significant, the application of 
more than one name to the same individual was not unusual. 

Oholibamah, daughter of Anah, daughter of Zibon the Hivite. This 
may have been the fourth wife of Esau in the order of time, though 
she is here classed with the daughter of Elon, because she was of the 
daughters of Kenaan. " Daughter of Zibon " means his granddaugh- 
ter, by the mother's side. The Hivite (x. 17). Zibon is thus distin- 
guished from the Horite of the same name (v. 20). The Hivite race 
' we have already met with at Shekem (xxxiv. 2). They also held four 
cities a short way north of Jerusalem, of which Gihon was the chief 
(Jos. ix. 3, 7, 17). It was easy, therefore, for Anah the Horite to 
marry the daughter of Zibon the Hivite. Basemath, previously called 
Mahalath. 



436 HISTOEY OF ESAU. 

4, 5. Five sons were born to Esau in Kenaan, of whom Adah and 
Basemath bare each one. As Oholibamah bare him three sons before 
leaving Kenaan, she must have been married to him four or five years 
before that event, perhaps on the death of his first wife, and in conse- 
quence of his connection with the south. 

6-8. The sentence that was left incomplete in v. 2 is now resumed 
and completed. His departure from Kenaan is ascribed to the abound- 
ing wealth of himself and his brother. What remained in the hands 
of Isaac was virtually Jacob's, though he had not yet entered into for- 
mal possession of it. Mount Seir is the range of hills extending from 
the Elanitic Gulf to the Salt Sea ; the northern part of which is called 
Jebal (VefiaXrjvrj), and the southern part esh-Sherah, and parallel to 
which on the west lies Wady Arabah. In this range is situated the 
celebrated rock city, Sela or Petra, adjacent to Mount Hor. 

9-14. After the removal to Mount Seir the race of Esau is traced 
further. It is remarkable that the phrase, " And these are the gener- 
ations of Esau," is now repeated. This is sufficient to show us that it 
does not necessarily indicate diversity of authorship, or is a very 
distinct piece of composition. Here it merely distinguishes the his- 
tory of Esau's descent in Mount Seir from that in Kenaan. Father of 
Edom. Edom here denotes the nation sprung from him. Eliphaz has 
five sons by his wife, and by a concubine a sixth, named Amalek, most 
probably the father of the Amalekites (xiv. 7). Tirana was probably 
a very young sister of Lotan (v. 22), perhaps not older than her niece 
Oholibamah (v. 25). Eliphaz was at least forty-one years younger 
than Esau. Yet it is curious that the father takes the niece to wife, 
and the son the aunt. Teman is the father of the Temanites, among 
whom we find Eliphaz the Temanite mentioned in Job (ii. 11). The 
name Kenaz may indicate some affinity of Edom with the Kenizzites 
(xv. 19), though these were an older tribe. The other tribes are not 
of any note in history. Zepho is Zephi in Chronicles, by the change 
of a feeble letter. Such variations are not unusual in Hebrew speech, 
and so make their appearance in writing. Thus in Genesis itself we 
have met with Mehujael and Mehijael, Peniel and Penuel (iv. 18, 
xxxii. 30, 31). The sons of Esau by Oholibamah are younger than 
the other two, and hence these sons are not enumerated along with 
those of the latter. 

15-19. The first dukes of Edom. The Alluph or duke is the head 
of the tribe among the Edomites, like the Nasi or prince among the 
Israelites. The ten grandsons of Esau by Adah and Easemath take 
rank with his three sons by Oholibamah. This favors the presumption 



GEN. XXXVI. 437 

that she was his fourth and latest wife. 16. Duke Corah. This ap- 
pears to be inserted by a slip of the pen, though it occurs in the Sept. 
and Onk. It is wanting, however, in the Sam. It would make twelve 
dukes, whereas it appears from the closing verses of the chapter that 
there were only eleven. It is possible, however, that there may have 
been a Corah descended from Eliphaz who attained to a dukedom ; and 
that Amalek separated himself from the rest of the Edomites and 
asserted his independence. In the absence of explanatory testimony 
we must leave this point undecided as we find it. 

20-30. This notice of the Horites is in matter more distinct from 
that which precedes, than the second is from the first paragraph in the 
chapter. Seir the Horite. The Horite (xiv. 6,) was the cave-dweller, 
and probably got his name from the cave hewn out of the solid rock 
in which he was wont to dwell. Sela was a city of such excavated 
dwellings. If Seir here mentioned be the original Seir, then he is the 
remote father of the seven Horite dukes who belonged to the time of 
Esau. If he be their immediate parent, then he is named after that 
earlier Seir who gave name to the mountain range. Who dwelt in the 
land. The sons of Seir dwelt in this land before the coming of the 
Edomites. 22-28. Here follow the descendants of the then living 
dukes of the Ilorim. Hori, Lotan's son, bears the name of the nation. 
Uemam, in Chronicles Homam, by a change of letter. Tlmna, the 
concubine of Eliphaz (v. 12). Alvan and Shepho, in Chronicles 
Aljan and Shephi, by a reverse change of the same letters (see v. 11). 
Zibon. This we suppose to be different from Zibon the Hivite (v. 2, 
14). Anah is of course different from his uncle Anah the brother of 
Zibon the Horite. The hot springs in the wilderness. There were 
various hot springs in the vicinity, as Kallirrhoe in Wady Zurka Main, 
those in Wady Hemad between Kerak and the Salt Sea, and those in 
Wady el-Ahsy. 25. Sons of Anah. The plural, sons, here is used 
according to the general formula, though only one son is mentioned. 
Oholibamah, being the daughter of Anah, and wife of Esau, while 
Eliphaz is married to her aunt Timna, is not likely to be the grand- 
daughter by the .mother's side of her uncle Zibon. This is in favor of 
Zibon the Hivite and Zibon the Horite being different individuals (v. 
2). Anah is here the brother of Zibon. The nephew Anah (v. 24), 
bears the name of his uncle (v. 20). Dishon is an example of the same 
community of name (v. 21). 26, 27. All Dishon's and Ezer's sons 
have names ending in an. Acan *$$* (Jaacan) in 1 Chron. i. 41 is a 
graphic error for ",£3>i (and Acan). 28. Uz ; see x. 23, xxii. 21. In 



438 HISTOKY OF ESAU. 

v. 29, 30, the dukes are formally enumerated. According to their 
dukes ; the seven officials of preeminent authority among the Horites. 
The official is here distinguished from the personal. This is a distinc- 
tion familiar to Scripture. 

31-39. The series of eight kings here enumerated are plainly elect- 
ive, as not one succeeds his father. The king coexists "with the dukes, 
who are again enumerated at the close of the list, and are mentioned 
in the song of Moses (Ex. xv. 15). These dukes are no doubt the 
electors of the common sovereign, who is designed to give unity and 
strength to the nation. It is natural to suppose that no sovereign was 
elected till after the death of Esau, and, therefore, if he lived as long as 
Jacob, after the children of Israel had been seventeen years in Egypt. 
As we calculate that they were two hundred and ten years in that coun- 
try, and forty years afterwards in the wilderness, this would allow 
two hundred and thirty-three (250 — 17) years for seven reigns, and a 
part of the eighth, during which Moses and his host marched along the 
borders of Edom. Allowing some interval before the first election, we 
have an average of thirty-three years for each reign. 31. Before a 
king reigned over the children of Israel. This simply means before 
there was a monarchy established in Israel. It does not imply that 
monarchy began in Israel immediately after these kings ; as Lot's be- 
holding the vale of Jordan to be well-watered before the Lord destroyed 
Sodom and Amorah, does not imply that the cities were destroyed im- 
mediately after Lot beheld this sight (xiii. 10). Nor does it imply 
that monarchy in Israel had begun in the time of the writer ; as Isaac's 
saying, " That my soul may bless thee before I die " (xxvii. 4) does 
not imply that he was dead at the time of his saying so. It merely 
implies that Israel was expected to have kings (xxxv. 11), as Isaac 
was expected to die. 32. Of the several sovereigns here men- 
tioned we have no other historical notice. Beor is also the name of 
Balaam's father (Num. xxii. 5). This indicates affinity of language 
between their respective tribes. The site of Dinhabah, the capital of 
Bela, though the name is applied to many towns, has not been ascer- 
tained. 33. Bozrah is el-Busaireh, about twenty-one miles nearly 
south of the Salt Sea. 34. The land of the Temanite has its name 
from Teman, son of Eliphaz. His town was, according to Jerome, 
five miles from Petra. 35. Hadad is a name of frequent recurrence 
among the Aramaeans. Who smote Midian in the field of Moab. This 
records an event not otherwise known, and indicates external conquest 
on the part of the Idumaean state. Avith or Ajuth (1 Chron. i. 46, 



GEN. XXXVII. 439 

probably a graphic error) is not otherwise known. 36. Masrecah is 
likewise unknown. 37. Rehoboth by the river. If the river be the 
Phrat (Onk.), Rehoboth may be er-Rahabah, not far from the mouth 
of the Khabur. Otherwise it may be er-Ruhaibeh on a wady joining 
the Sihor or el-Arish (xxvi. 22), or the Robotha of Eusebius and Je- 
rome, the site of which is not known. 39. Hadar is probably a collo- 
quial variation of Hadad (v. 35) which is found in Chron. Pau or Pai 
is unknown. Hatred is the father of his wife. Mezahab her mother's 
father. The death of all these sovereigns is recorded except the last, 
who is therefore supposed to have been contemporary with Moses. 

40-43. The hereditary dukes who were contemporaneous with this 
sovereign, and formed no doubt his council, are now enumerated. Tim- 
na, once the name of a female, now appears as a male, unless we allow 
a duchess in her own right to have occurred among them. The same 
applies to Oholibamah. Alva or Aljah is near akin to Alvan or Alian 
(v. 23). Jetheth, Elah, Pinon, Mibzar, Magdiel, Iram, are new names. 
Four of the old names reappear. One is only slightly different. The 
number of dukes is eleven. It is probable that Amalek separated from 
the family confederacy ; and the number of tribes may have been 
originally twelve. The seven Horite dukedoms probably merged into 
the Idumaean eleven. 



LXV. JOSEPH SOLD INTO EGYPT. — Gen. xxxvii. 

17. "p.rrj Dothain, two wells? (Ges.) 

25. rab? tragacanth or goat's-thorn gum, yielded by the astragalus 
gummifer, a native of Mount Lebanon, lis opobalsamum, the resin 
of the balsam tree, growing in Gilead, and having healing qualities. 
'Jb Xrfiov, ledum, ladanum, in the Septuagint araKTrj. The former is a 
gum produced from the cistus rose. The latter is a gum resembling 
liquid myrrh. 

36. "iS'TOiS Potiphar, belonging to the sun. 



XXXVII. 1. And Jacob dwelt in the land of his father's 
sojournings, in the land of Kenaan. 2. These are the genera- 
tions of Jacob. Joseph, the son of seventeen years, was with 
his brethren feeding the flock, and he a lad with the sons of 



440 JOSEPH SOLD INTO EGYPT. 

Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives ; and 
Joseph brought an evil report of them unto their father. 3. 
And Israel loved Joseph above all his sons, because he was the 
son of his old age : and he made him a coat of many colors. 
4. And his brethren saw that their father loved him above all 
his brethren, and they hated him, and could not bid peace to 
him. 

5. And Joseph dreamed a dream and told his brethren : and 
they hated him yet the more. 6. And he said unto them, Hear 
now this dream which I have dreamed. 7. And, behold, we 
were binding sheaves in the field, and- lo, my sheaf arose, and 
also stood upright ; and, lo, your sheaves stood around, and 
bowed down to my sheaf. 8. And his brethren said unto him, 
Shalt thou reign indeed over us ? Shalt thou have the rule 
over us ? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams 
and for his words. 9. And he dreamed yet another dream, 
and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a 
dream more ; and lo, the sun and the moon and eleven stars 
bowed down to me. 10. And he told his father and his breth- 
ren : and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is 
this dream thou hast dreamed ? Shall I and thy mother and 
thy brethren come indeed to bow down to thee to the earth ? 
11. And his brethren envied him, and his father observed the 
saying. 

12. And his brethren went to feed their father's flock in 
Shekem. 13. And Israel said unto Joseph, Are not thy breth- 
ren herding in Shekem ? Come, and I will send thee unto 
them. And he said to him, Here am I. 14. And he said to 
him, Go, now, see that it is well with thy brethren and well 
with the flock ; and bring me back word. And he sent him 
out of the dale of Hebron, and he went to Shekem. 15. And 
a man found him, and, lo, he was wandering in the field : and 
the man asked him saying, What seekest thou ? 16. And he 
said, My brethren seek I : tell me now where they are herd- 
ing. 17. And the man said, They have set out hence ; for I 



GEN. XXXVII. 441 

heard them say, Let us go to Dothan. And Joseph went after 
his brethren, and found them in Dothan. 

18. And they. saw him afar off: and before he came near 
unto them, they plotted against him to kill him. 19. And 
they said one to another, Behold, this master of dreams cometh, 
20. And now come, and let us slay him and cast him into one 
of the pits, and we will say, An evil beast hath devoured him ; 
and we shall see what will become of his dreams, 21. And 
Reuben heard, and delivered him out of their hand : and he 
said, Let us not strike at his life. 22. And Reuben said unto 
them, Shed not blood ; cast him into this pit that is in the 
"wilderness, and lay no hand on him : that he might deliver 
him out of their hand, to restore him to his father. 23. And 
it came to pass when Joseph was come to his brethren, that 
they stripped Joseph of his coat, the coat of many colors, that 
was on him. 24. And they took him, and cast him into the 
pit ; and the pit was empty : there was no water in it. 

25. And they sat down to eat bread ; and they lifted up 
their eyes, and looked, and, behold, a caravan of Ishmaelites 
came from Gilead, and their camels bare spicery and balm and 
myrrh, going to carry down into Mizraim. 26. And Judah 
said unto his brethren, What profit that we slay our brother 
and cover his blood ? 27. Come, and let us sell him to the 
Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him ; for our brother 
is our flesh. And his brethren hearkened. 28. xlnd there 
passed by Midianite merchants, and they drew and lifted up 
Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for 
twenty silver pieces : and they brought Joseph to Mizraim. 
29. And Reuben returned unto the pit ; and, behold, Joseph 
was not in the pit ; and he rent his clothes. 80. And he re- 
turned to his brethren and said, The lad is not, and I, whither 
shall I go ? 

31. And they took Joseph's coat, and killed a kid of the 
goats, and dipped the coat in the blood. 32. And they rent 
the coat of many colors, and carried it to their father, and 
56 



442 JOSEPH SOLD INTO EGYPT. 

said, This we have found : know now whether it be thy son's 
coat or not. 83. And he knew it, and said, It is my son's 
coat ; an evil beast hath devoured him : torn, torn in pieces is 
Joseph. 34. And Jacob rent his garments, and put sackcloth 
on his loins, and mourned for his son many days. 35. Then 
arose all his sons and all his daughters to comfort him ; and 
he refused to be comforted, and said, For I will go down to 
my son mourning to the grave. And his father wept for him. 
36. And the Midianites sold him into Mizraim unto Potiphar, 
an officer of Pharoh, captain of the guards. H 35. 

The sketch of the race of Edom, given in the preceding piece, we 
have seen, reaches down to the time of Moses. Accordingly, the his- 
tory of Jacob's seed, which is brought before us in the present docu- 
ment, reverts to a point of time not only before the close of that piece, 
but before the final record of that which precedes it. The thread of 
the narrative is here taken up from the return of Jacob to Hebron, 
which was seventeen years before the death of Isaac. 

1-5. Joseph is the favorite of his father, but not of his brethren. In 
the land of his father's sojournings. This contrasts Jacob with Esau, 
who removed to Mount Seir. This notice precedes the phrase, " These 
are the generations." The corresponding sentence in the case of Isaac 
is placed at the end of the preceding section of the narrative (xxv. 11). 
The son of seventeen years ; in his seventeenth year (v. 32). The sons 
of Bilhah. The sons of the handmaids were nearer his own age, and 
perhaps more tolerant of the favorite than the sons of Leah the free 
wife. Benjamin at this time was about four years of age. An evil 
report of them. The unsophisticated child of home is prompt in the 
disapproval of evil, and frank in the avowal of his feelings. What the 
evil was we are not informed ; but Jacob's full-grown sons were now 
far from the paternal eye, and prone, as it seems, to give way to temp- 
tation. Many scandals come out to view in the chosen family. Loved 
Joseph. He was the son of his best-loved wife, and of his old age ; 
as Benjamin had not yet come into much notice. A coat of many col- 
ors. This was a coat reaching to the hands and feet, worn by persons 
not much occupied with manual labor, according to the general opin- 
ion. It was, we conceive, variegated either by the loom or the needle, 
and is therefore well rendered x L ™ v woik/Xos, a motley coat. Could 



GEN. XXXVII. 443 

not hid peace to him. The partiality of his father, exhibited in so 
weak a manner, provokes the anger of his brothers, who cannot bid 
him good-day, or greet him in the ordinary terms of good-will. 

5-11. Joseph's dreams excite the jealousy of his brothers. 5-8. 
His frankness in reciting his dream to his brothers marks a spirit de- 
void of guile, and only dimly conscious of the import of his nightly 
visions. The first dream represents by a figure the humble submission 
of all his brothers to him, as they rightly interpret it. For his dreams 
and for Ms words. The meaning of this dream was offensive enough, 
and his telling of it rendered it even more disagreeable. 9-11. A 
second dream is given to express the certainty of the event (xli. 32). 
The former serves to interpret the latter. There the sheaves are con- 
nected with the brothers who bound them, and thereby indicate the 
parties. The eleven stars are not so connected with them. But here 
Joseph is introduced directly without a figure, and the number eleven, 
taken along with the eleven sheaves of the former dream, makes the 
application to the brothers plain. The sun and moon clearly point out 
the father and mother. The mother is to be taken, we conceive, in the 
abstract, without nicely inquiring whether it means the departed Rachel, 
or the probably still living Leah. Not even the latter seems to have 
lived to see the fulfilment of this prophetic dream (xlix. 31). The 
second dream only aggravated the hatred of his brothers ; but his 
father, while rebuking him for his speeches, yet marked the saying. 
The rebuke seems to imply that the dream, or the telling of it, appears 
to his father to indicate the lurking of a self-sufficient or ambitious 
spirit within the breast of the youthful Joseph. The twofold intima- 
tion, however, came from a higher source. 

12-17. Joseph is sent to Dothan. Shekem belonged to Jacob; part 
of it by purchase, and the rest by conquest. Joseph is sent to inquire 
of their welfare (aiVij peace, v. 4). With obedient promptness the 
youth goes to Shekem, where he learns that they had removed to 
Dothan, a town about twelve miles due north of Shekem. 

18-24. His brothers cast him into a pit. This master of dreams; an 
eastern phrase for a dreamer. Let us slay him. They had a forebod- 
ing that his dreams might prove true, and that he would become their 
arbitrary master. This thought at all events would abate somewhat 
of the barbarity of their designs. It is implied in the closing sentence 
of their proposal. Reuben dissuades them from the act of murder, 
and advises merely to cast him into the pit, to which they consent. 
He had a more tender heart, and perhaps a more tender conscience 



444 JOSEPH SOLD INTO EGYPT. 

than the rest, and intended to send Joseph back safe to his father. He 
doubtless took care to choose a pit that was without water. 
. 25-30. Reuben rends his clothes when he finds Joseph gone. To 
eat bread. This shows the cold and heartless cruelty of their deed. 
A caravan, — a company of travelling merchants. Ishmaelites. Ishmael 
left his father's house when about fourteen or fifteen years of age. His 
mother took him a wife probably when he was eighteen, or twenty at 
the furthest. He had arrived at the latter age about one hundred and 
sixty-two years before the date of the present occurrence. He had 
twelve sons (xxv. 13-15), and if we allow only four other generations 
and a fivefold increase, there will be about fifteen thousand in the fifth 
generation. Came from Gilead ; celebrated for its balm (Jer. viii. 22, 
xlvi. 11). The caravan road from Damascus to Egypt touches upon 
the land of Gilead, goes through Beth-shean, and passes by Dothan. 
Spicery. This gum is called tragacanth, or goats-thorn gum, because 
it was supposed to be obtained from this plant. Balm, or balsam ; an 
aromatic substance obtained from a plant of the genus Amyris, a na- 
tive of Gilead. Myrrh is the name of a gum exuding from the balsa- 
modendron myrrha, growing in Arabia Felix. Lot, however, is sup- 
posed to be the resinous juice of the cistus or rock rose, a plant grow- 
ing in Crete and Syria. Judah, relenting, and revolting perhaps from 
the crime of fratricide, proposes to sell Joseph to the merchants. Mid- 
ianites and Medanites (v. 36) are mere variations apparently of the 
same name. They seem to have been the actual purchasers, though 
the caravan takes its name from the Ishmaelites, who formed by far 
the larger portion of it. Midian and Medan were both sons of Abra- 
ham, and during one hundred and twenty-five years must have increased 
to a small clan. Thus Joseph is sold to the descendants of Abraham. 
Twenty silver pieces ; probably shekels. This is the rate at which Moses 
estimates a male from five to twenty years old (Lev. xxvii. 5). A 
man-servant was valued by him at thirty shekels (Ex. xxi. 32). Reu- 
ben finding Joseph gone, rends his clothes, in token of anguish of mind 
for the loss of his brother and the grief of his father. 

31-36. The brothers contrive to conceal their crime; and Joseph 
is sold into Egypt. Tom, torn in pieces is Joseph. The sight of the 
bloody coat convinces Jacob at once that Joseph has been devoured by 
a wild beast. All his daughters. Only one daughter of Jacob is men- 
tioned by name. These are probably his daughters-in-law. To the 
grave. Sheol is the place to which the soul departs at death. It is so 
called from its ever craving, or being empty. Minister. This word 



GEN. XXXVIII. 445 

originally means eunuch, and then, generally, any officer about the court 
or person of the sovereign. Captain of the guards. The guards are 
the executioners of the sentences passed by the sovereign on culprits, 
which were often arbitrary, summary, and extremely severe. It is 
manifest, from this dark chapter, that the power of sin has not been 
extinguished in the family of Jacob. The name of God does not 
appear, and his hand is at present only dimly seen among the wicked 
designs, deeds, and devices of these unnatural brothers. Nevertheless, 
his counsel of mercy standeth sure, and fixed is his purpose to bring 
salvation to the whole race of man, by means of his special covenant 
with Abraham. 



LXVI. THE FAMILY OF JUDAH. — Gen. xxxviii. 

1. d|fS 'Adullam, righteousness. rnin Chirah, nobility? 

2. $W Shua', luck, riches, cry. 

3. *i§ 'Er, watching. 

4. 1Si« Onan, strong. 

5. Sibttj Sbelah, request? rest. 5*^3 Kezib, falsehood. 

6. "raPi Tamar, palm. 

12. SiJEP] Timnah, counted or assigned. 
14. tFJW 'Enaim, two fountains. 
29. Y% Perets, breach. 

XXXVIII. 1. And it came to pass at that time, that Judah 
went down from his brethren, and turned in to a certain Adul- 
lamite, whose name was Hirah. 2. And Judah saw there a 
daughter of a certain Kenaanite, whose name was Shua ; and 
he took her and went in unto her. 3. And she conceived and 
bare a son ; and he called his name Er. 4. And she conceived 
again and bare a son ; and she called his name Onan. 5. And 
she added again and bare a son, and called his name Shelah : 
and it was at Kezib that she bare him. 6. And Judah took 
a wife for Er his first-born, whose name was Tamar. 7. And 
Er, Judah's first-born, was evil in the sight of the Lord ; and 
the Lord killed him. 8. And Judah said unto Onan, Go in 



446 THE FAMILY OF JUDAH. 

unto thy brother's wife, and be a husband to her, and raise up 
seed to thy brother. 9. And Onan knew that the seed should 
not be his ; and it came to pass, if he went in unto his brother's 
wife, that he spilt it on the ground, lest he should give seed to 
his brother. 10. And that which he did was evil in the eyes 
of the Lord, and he killed him also. 11. And Judah said to 
Tamar, his daughter-in-law, Dwell a widow in thy father's 
house, till Shelah my son be grown. For he said, Lest he also 
die, as his brethren. And Tamar went and dwelt in her 
father's house. 

12. And many were the days, and Shua's daughter, wife of 
Tudah, died ; and Judah was comforted, and went up unto 
his sheep-shearers, he and Hirah his friend the Adullamite, 
to Timnah. 13. And it was told Tamar, saying, Behold thy 
father-in-law goeth up to Timnah to shear his sheep. 14. And 
she put the garments of her widowhood off her, and put on a 
veil, and wrapped herself up, and sat at the gate of Enaim, 
which is on the way to Timnah : for she saw that Shelah was 
grown, and she was not given to him to wife. 15. And Judah 
saw her, and thought her to be a harlot, because she had cov- 
ered her face. 16. And he turned unto her by the way, and 
said, Pray now, let me come in unto thee. For he knew not 
that she was his daughter-in-law : And she said, What wilt 
thou give me, that thou mayst come in unto me ? 17. And 
he said, I will send thee a kid from the flock. And she said, 
if thou wilt give me a pledge, till thou send it. 18. And he 
said, What pledge shall I give thee ? And she said, Thy sig- 
net, and thy lace, and thy staff that is in thy hand. And he 
gave her them, and went in unto her, and she conceived by 
him. 19. And she arose, and went, and took her veil off her, 
and put on the garments of her widowhood. 20. And Judah 
sent the kid by the hand of his friend the Adullamite, to re- 
ceive the pledge from the woman's hand ; and he found her 
not. 21. And he asked the men of her place, saying, Where 
is the courtesan that was in Enaim by the way ? And they 



GEN. XXXVHI. 447 

said, There was no courtesan here. 22. And he returned to 
Judah, and said, I found her not; and also the men of her 
place said, There was no courtesan here. 23. And Judah said, 
Let her take them, lest we be shamed : behold, I sent this kid, 
and thou hast not found her. 

24. And it came to pass, after three months, that it was told 
Judah, saying, Tamar thy daughter-in-law hath played the 
harlot ; and also, behold she is with child by whoredom. And 
Judah said, Bring her forth, and let her be burnt. 25. She 
was brought forth, and she sent to her father-in-law, saying, 
By the man whose these are, am I with child. And she said, 
Discern now, whose are these, the signet and the laces and the 
staff. 26. And Judah acknowledged them, and said, She hath 
been more righteous than I ; for therefore I gave her not to 
Shelah my son. And he knew her again no more. 27. And 
it came to pass in the time of her bearing, that, behold, twins 
were in her womb. 28. And it came to pass in her bearing, 
that one put forth a hand ; and the midwife took and bound 
on his hand a scarlet thread, saying, This came out first. 29. 
And it came to pass, as he drew back his hand, that, behold 
his brother came out : and she said, How hast thou made for 
thee a breach ? And she called his name Perez. 80. And 
afterwards came out his brother, that had on his hand the 
scarlet thread : and his name was called Zerah. § 40. 

This strange narrative is an episode in the history of Joseph ; but 
an integral part of the " generations " of Jacob. It is loosely dated 
with the phrase " at that time." This does not indicate a sequel to the 
preceding record, the proper phrase for which is " after these things " 
(rfban orwn ■nnx xxii. 1). It implies rather a train of events that 
commenced at least in the past, some time before the closing incident 
of the previous narrative (xxi. 22). But the sale of Joseph, which 
alone is recorded in the last chapter, only occupied some few weeks or 
months of a year. Hence the circumstances contained in this memoir 
of Judah's family must have taken their rise before that event. The 
date " at that time," is rendered indefinite also by being attached to 



448 THE FAMILY OF JUDAH. 

the phrase, " And it came to pass," which covers at least all the events 
in the first eleven verses of the chapter. All this is in accordance 
with the customary mode of arranging parallel lines of events in He- 
brew narrative. We shall see reason afterwards for placing the birth 
of Er at as early a date as possible in the life of Judah (xlvi. 12). 
Now Judah, we conceive, was born when his father was eighty-seven, 
and Joseph when he was ninety-one, and hence there is a difference of 
about four years in their ages. We suppose Er to have been born in 
Judah's fourteenth year, when Joseph and Dinah were in their tenth, 
and therefore about three years before the rape of Dinah, and shortly 
after Jacob arrived at the town of Shekem. The dishonor of Dinah, 
and the cruel treatment of Joseph, being of essential moment in the 
process of things, had to be recorded in the main line of events. The 
commencement of Judah's family, having no particular influence on 
the current of the history, is fitly reserved till the whole of the circum- 
stances could be brought together into a connected narrative. And 
the private history of Judah's line is given, while that of the others is 
omitted, simply because from him the promised seed is descended. As 
soon as Jacob is settled in the promised land, the intercourse with He- 
bron and its neighborhood seems to have commenced. A clear proof 
of this is the presence of Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, in Jacob's family 
(xxxv. 8). The great thoroughfare from Damascus to Egypt runs 
through Shekem and Hebron, and we know that when Jacob was 
residing at Hebron, his sons fed their flocks at Shekem and Dothan, 
and the youthful Joseph was sent to inquire after their welfare. 

1-11. Judah marries and has three sons. Went down from his 
brethren. This seems to have been an act of wilful indiscretion in Ju- 
dah. His separation from his brethren, however, extends only to the 
matter of his new connection. In regard to property and employment 
there seems to have been no long or entire separation till they went 
down into Egypt. He went down from the high grounds about She- 
kem to the lowlands in which Adullam was situated (Jos. xv. 33-35). 
A certain Adullamite. He may have become acquainted with this 
Hirah, when visiting his grandfather, or in some of the caravans which 
were constantly passing Shekem, or even in the ordinary wanderings 
of the pastoral life. Adullam was in the Shephelah or lowland of 
Judah bordering on Philistia proper. A certain Kenaanite. This 
connection with Shua's daughter was contrary to the will of God and 
the example of his fathers. Onan was born, we conceive, in Judah's 
fifteenth year, and Shelah in his sixteenth. 



GEN. XXXVIII. 449 

At Kezib. This appears the same as Akzib, which is • associated 
with Keilah and Mareshah (Jos. xv. 44), and therefore lay in the south 
of the lowland of Judah. This note of placs indicates a change of 
residence since her other children were born. In the year after this 
birth the dishonor of Dinah takes place. 6. Took a wife for Er. Ju- 
dah chose a wife for himself at an early age, and now he chooses for 
his first-born at the same age. Was evil in the eyes of the Lord. The 
God of covenant is obliged to cut off Er for his wickedness in the 
prime of life. We are not made acquainted with his crime ; but it 
could scarcely be more vile and unnatural than that for which his 
brother Onan is also visited with death. And be a husband to her. 
The original word means to act as a husband to the widow of a 
deceased brother who has left no issue. Onan seems to have been 
prompted to commit his crime by the low motive of turning the whole 
inheritance to his own house. At the time of Er's death Judah must 
have been in his twenty-seventh year ; Joseph was consequently in his 
twenty -third, and Jacob had for ten years past had his headquarters at 
Hebron. Hence the intercourse with Timnah, Adullam, and Enaim 
was easy. 

12-23. Judah now comes into criminal, and, though unknown to 
him, incestuous intercourse with Tamar. And many were the days ; 
a year or somewhat more. To Timnah. This town is about twenty 
miles northwest of Hebron. There is another, however, in the hills 
about seven miles south of Hebron. Pat on a veil; to conceal her face 
from Judah, or any other beholder. The gate of Enaim. This is 
supposed to be the same as Enam (Jos. xv. 34). And thy lace. This 
is the cord by which the signet was suspended round his neck. Cour- 
tesan. The original word (ttuhp) means one consecrated to the wor- 
ship of Ashtoreth, in which chastity is sacrificed. 

24-30. Tamar bears Perez and Zerah to Judah. After three months 
her pregnancy was manifest. Let her be burnt. It is manifest Judah 
had the power to execute this punishment. The life of the widow of 
his son was in his hands. Stoning was the mode of punishment by 
the law of Moses (Deut. xxii. 20-24) ; burning, only in aggravated 
cases (Lev. xx. 14, xxi. 9). He is a severe judge in a case where he 
is equally criminal. She hath been more righteous than I. Tamar was 
less culpable in this matter than Judah. For he was moved by lust 
to commit fornication, and was the indirect occasion of Tamar 's con- 
duct by withholding Selah. But Tamar, though wronged, was not 
free from blame in her mode of righting herself. The youthful indis- 

57 



450 THE FAMILY OF JUDAH. 

cretion of Judah in forming an intermarriage with a Canaanitish fam- 
ily, without the concurrence of his brothers or his father, has been 
fruitful of crime. If this intercourse go on, the chosen family will be 
speedily absorbed in the surrounding heathenism. Hence we begin 
to see the necessity of an immediate removal to another land, where 
they may be kept more distinct from the native superstition. By the 
disclosure of Tamar Judah is brought to acknowledgment of his fault, 
and, we may infer, to repentance. His abstaining from all further 
intercourse with her may be accepted as a proof of this. A scarlet 
thread. The right of primogeniture here manifests its importance. 
Perez, — a breach. Slight incidents become the foundation of names, 
and are often the hinges on which great events turn. The minutest 
circumstances connected with the progenitors of the promised seed 
have a lasting interest. 

Judah was at the close of his twenty-ninth year when Perez and 
Zerah were born. The dates in his family history may be arranged 
as underneath, on the supposition that the first child was born when 
the father was in his fourteenth year. This hypothesis is fairly allow- 
able when we take into consideration not only other cases, but the 
early wilfulness of Judah, and the example he gave to his children. 
The command also to be fruitful and multiply (xxxv. 11), which was 
given specially to Jacob, may have had a tendency to encourage early 
marriages. It is certain that the Jewish rabbis considered a man to 
have transgressed a divine precept who passed the age of twenty with- 
out being married. They also fixed the marriageable age for males at 
thirteen years and a day. King Ahaz was the father of Hezekiah 
when he was not more than twelve ( 2 Kings xvi. 2, xviii. 2) ; and 
King Josiah the father of Jehoiakim, when fourteen years of age (2 
Kings xxii. 1, xxiii. 36). 

Judah 13 years 6 months when Er was born. 



14 


« 


4 


« 


when Onan was born. 


15 


it 


3 


tt 


when Shelah was born. 


28 


tt 


9 


tt 


when Perez was born. 


42 


tt 


3 


tt 


when Hezron born to Perez. 


43 


tt 


2 


tt 


when Hamul born. 



GEN. XXXIX. 451 



LXVII. JOSEPH IN POTIPHAR'S HOUSE. — Gen. xxxix. 

XXXIX. 1. And Joseph was brought down to Mizraim ; 
and Potiphar, an officer of Pharoh, captain of the guards, a 
Mizrite, bought him of the hand of the Ishmaelites, who 
brought him down thither. 2. And the Lord was with Joseph, 
and he was a prosperous man ; and he was in the house of his 
master the Mizrite. 3. And his master saw that the Lord was 
with him, and all that he did the Lord made to prosper in his 
hand. 4. And Joseph found favor in his eyes, and he served 
him : and he set him over his house, and all that he had he 
put into his hand. 5. And it came to pass, from the time 
that he set him over his house, and over all that he had, that 
the Lord blessed the Mizrite's house for Joseph's sake ; and 
the blessing of the Lord was upon all that he had in the 
house, and in the field. 6. And he left all that he had in 
Joseph's hand ; and he knew not aught with him, save the 
bread which he did eat. And Joseph was beautiful in form 
and look. 

7. And it came to pass after these things, that his master's 
wife cast her eyes upon Joseph : and she said, Lie with me. 
8. And he refused, and said unto his master's wife, Behold, my 
master knoweth not what is with me in the house, and all 
that he hath he hath put into my hand. 9. There is none 
. greater in this house than I, and he hath not kept back from 
me aught but thee, because thou art his wife : and how can I 
do this great evil, and sin against God ? 10. And it came to 
pass, as she spake to Joseph day by day, that he hearkened 
not unto her, to lie by her to be with her. 

11. And it came to pass at this day, that he went into the 
house to do his business ; and there was none of the men of the 
house there within. 1%. And she caught him by his garment, 
saying, Lie with me : and he left his garment in her hand, 
and fled, and came out of the house. 13. And it came to 



452 JOSEPH IN POTIPHAR'S HOUSE. 

pass when she saw that he had left his garment in her hand, 
and fled out of the house, 14. That she called unto the men 
of her house, and said unto them, saying, See, he hath brought 
in to us a Hebrew to mock us ; he came in unto me to lie with 
me, and I cried with a loud voice. 15. And it came to pass 
when he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried, that he 
left Ms garment by me, and fled, and went out of the house. 
16. And she laid up his garment by her, until his master came 
home. 17. And she spake unto him according to these words, 
saying, the Hebrew servant, whom thou hast brought in to us, 
came in unto me to mock me. 18. And it came to pass, as I 
lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his garment by me, 
and fled out of the house. 

19. And it came to pass, when his master heard the words 
of his wife, which she spake unto him, saying, After this man- 
ner did thy servant unto me, that his wrath was kindled. 20. 
And Joseph's master took him, and put him into the prison, 
the place where the king's prisoners were bound : and he was 
there in the prison. 21. And the Lord was with Joseph, and 
showed him mercy, and gave him favor in the eyes of the 
keeper of the prison. 22. And the keeper of the prison put 
into Joseph's hand all the prisoners that were in the prison ; 
and of all that they did there he was the doer. 23. The 
keeper of the prison looked not to aught in his hand, because 
the Lord was with him, and that which he did the Lord made 
to prosper. IT 36. 

According to our reckoning, Perez and Zerah were born when 
Judah was in his twenty-eighth year, and therefore Joseph in his 
twenty-fourth. Here, then, we go back seven years to resume the 
story of Joseph. 

1-6. Joseph fares well with his first master. Potiphar. This is a 
racapitulation of the narrative in ch. xxxvii. The Lord ; the God of 
covenant is with Joseph. In the house. Joseph was a domestic ser- 
vant. And his master saw. The prosperity that attended all Joseph's 
doings was so striking as to show that the Lord was with him. Set 



GEN. XL. 453 

him over, — made him overseer of all that was in his house. The 
Lord blessed the Mizrite's house. He blesses those who bless his own 
(xii. 3). Beautiful in form and look (xxix. 17). This prepares the 
way for the following occurrence. 

7-10. Joseph resists the daily solicitations of his master's wife to lie 
with her. None greater in this house than I. He pleads the unre- 
served trust his master had reposed in him. Pie is bound by the law 
of honor, the law of chastity (this great evil), and the law of piety (sin 
against God). Joseph uses the common name of God in addressing 
this Egyptian. He could employ no higher pleas than the above. 

11-18. At this day, — the day on which the occurrence now to be 
related took place. To do his business. He does not come in her 
way except at the call of duty. He hath brought in. She either does 
not condescend, or does not need to name her husband. A Hebrew to 
mock us. Her disappointment now provokes her to falsehood as the 
means of concealment and revenge. A Hebrew is still the only na- 
tional designation proper to Joseph (xiv. 13). Jacob's descendants 
had not got beyond the family. The term Israelite was therefore not 
yet in use. The national name is designedly used as a term of re- 
proach among the Egyptians (xliii. 32). To mock us, — to take im- 
proper liberties, not only with me, but with any of the females in the 
house. I cried with a loud voice. This is intended to be the proof of 
her innocence (Deut. xxii. 24, 27). Left his garments by me ; not in 
her hand, which would have been suspicious. 

19-23. Her husband believes her story, and naturally resents the 
supposed unfaithfulness of his slave. His treatment of him is mild. 
He puts him in ward, probably to stand his trial for the offence. The 
Lord does not forsake the prisoner. He gives him favor with the 
governor of the jail. The same unlimited trust is placed in him by 
the governor as by his late master. 



LXVIII. JOSEPH IN PRISON. -Gen. xl. 

XL. 1. And it came to pass after these things, that the but- 
ler of the king of Mizraim and the baker had sinned against 
their master, the king of Mizraim. 2. And Pharoh was wroth 
against two of his officers, against the chief butler, and against 



454 JOSEPH IN PRISON. 

the chief baker. 3. And he put them in ward, in the house of 
the captain of the guards, in the prison, the place where Jo- 
seph was bound. 4. And the captain of the guards charged 
Joseph with them, and he ministered to them, and they were 
some days in ward. 

5. And they dreamed a dream, both of them, each his 
dream in one night, each according to the interpretation of 
his dream, the butler and the baker of the king of Mizraim, 
who were bound in the prison. 6. And Joseph went in to 
them in the morning, and looked upon them, and, behold, they 
were sad. 7. And he asked Pharoh's officers that were with 
him in the ward of his master's house, saying, Why are your 
faces bad to-day ? 8. And they said unto him, A dream have 
we dreamed, and there is no interpreter of it. And Joseph 
said unto them, Do not interpretations belong to God ? Tell 
them now to me. 

9. And the chief butler told his dream to Joseph, and said 
unto him, I was in my dream, and, behold, a vine was before 
me ; 10. And in the vine three branches : and as it budded, 
its blossom shot up, and the clusters thereof yielded ripe 
grapes. 11. And Pharoh's cup was in my hand : and I took 
the grapes, and pressed them into Pharoh's cup, and gave the 
cup into Pharoh's hand. 12. And Joseph said unto him, This 
is the interpretation of it : The three branches are three days. 

13. In yet three days shall Pharoh lift up thy head and restore 
thee unto thy place ; and thou shalt give Pharoh's cup into 
his hand, after the former manner when thou wast his butler. 

14. But remember me when it shall be well with thee, and 
show unto me kindness, and mention me unto Pharoh, and 
bring me out of this house. 15. For stolen, stolen was I from 
the land of the Hebrews, and also here I have not done aught 
that they should put me into the pit. 

16. And the chief baker saw that the interpretation was 
good, and he said unto Joseph, I also was in my dream, and, 
behold, three baskets of white bread on my head. 17. And 



GEN. XL. 455 

in the uppermost basket all manner of baked meats for Pharoh ; 
and the birds did eat them out of the basket on my head. 18. 
And Joseph answered and said, This is the interpretation there- 
of : The three baskets are three days. 19. In yet three days 
shall Pharoh lift up thy head from upon thee, and shall hang 
thee on a tree : and the birds shall eat thy flesh from upon thee. 
20. And it came to pass on the third day, the birthday of 
Pharoh, that he made a feast unto all his servants : and he 
lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker 
among his servants. 21. And he restored the chief butler to 
his butlership ; and he gave the cup into Pharoh's hand. 22. 
And the chief baker he hanged : as Joseph had interpreted to 
them. 23. And the chief butler remembered not Joseph, and 
forgot him. 10 HlFf 37. 



An unmurmuring patience and an unhesitating hopefulness keep 
the breast of Joseph in calm tranquillity. There is a God above, and 
that God is with him. His soul swerves not from this feeling. Mean- 
while, new and distinguished prisoners are introduced into his place of 
confinement. 

1-4. The chief butler and chief baker, high officials in Pharoh's 
court, come under the displeasure of their sovereign. In the house of 
the captain of the guards. It appears that this officer's establishment 
contained the keep in which Joseph and these criminals were confined. 
Charged Joseph with them. As Joseph was his slave, and these were 
state prisoners, he appointed him to wait upon them. It is probable 
that Joseph's character had been somewhat reestablished with him 
during his residence in the prison. 

5-8. These prisoners dream, each according to the interpretation of 
his dream, the imagery of which was fitted to indicate his future state. 
They were sad, — anxious to know the meaning of these impressive 
dreams. Why are your faces bad to-day ? Joseph keeps up his char- 
acter of frank composure. Do not interpretations belong to God f la 
his past history he had learned that dreams themselves come from 
God. And when he adds, Tell them now to me, he intimates that God 
would enable him to interpret their dreams. Here again he uses the 
general name of God, which was common to him with the heathen. 



456 JOSEPH IN PRISON. 

9-15. The chief butler now recites his dream. Pressed them into 
Pharoh's cup. The imagery of the dream is not intended to intimate 
that Pharoh drank only the fresh juice of the grape. It only ex- 
presses by a natural figure the source of wine, and possibly the duty 
of the chief butler to understand and superintend the whole process 
of its formation. Egypt was not only a corn, but a vine country. 
The interpretation of this dream was very obvious and natural ; yet 
not without a divine intimation could it be known that the three 
branches were three days. Joseph, in the quiet confidence that his 
interpretation would prove correct, begs the chief butler to remember 
him and endeavor to procure his release. Stolen, stolen was I. He 
assures him that he was not a criminal, and that his enslavement was 
an act of wrongful violence — a robbery by the strong hand. From the 
land of the Hebrews ; a very remarkable expression, as it strongly 
favors the presumption that the Hebrews inhabited the country before 
Kenaan took possession of it. I have not done aught. Joseph pleads 
innocence, and claims liberation, not as an unmerited favor, but as a 
right. The pit. The pit without water seems to have been the 
primitive place of confinement for culprits. 

1G-19. The chief baker is encouraged by this interpretation to tell 
his dream. / also. He anticipates a favorable answer, from the 
remarkable likeness of the dreams. On my head. It appears from the 
monuments of Egypt that it was the custom for men to carry articles 
on their heads. All manner of baked meats were also characteristic of 
a corn country. Lift up thy head from upon thee. This part of the 
interpretation proves its divine origin. And hang thee, — thy body, 
after being beheaded. This was a constant warning to all beholders. 

20-23. The interpretations prove correct. The birthday of Pharoh. 
It is natural and proper for men to celebrate with thanksgiving the 
day of their birth, as life is a pure and positive blessing. The benign 
Creator gives only a happy and precious form of existence to those 
whom he endows with the capacity of estimating its value. A birth- 
day feast cannot be without a chief butler and a chief baker, and 
hence the fate of these criminals must be promptly decided. Lifted 
up the head ; a phrase of double meaning. The chief butler remem- 
bers not Joseph. This is a case of frequent occurrence in this nether 
world. But there is One above who does not forget him. He will 
deliver him at the proper time. 



GEN. XLI. 457 



LXIX. JOSEPH EXALTED. — Gen. xli. 

1. lio river, canal, mostly applied to the Nile. Some suppose the 
word to be Coptic. 

2. WX sedge, reed-grass, marsh-grass. This word is probably 
Coptic. 

8. d'-SB'irt l^y^Tat, UpoypafjLfjLaTeLs, sacred scribes, hieroglyphs. 
E^ry stylus, a graving tool. 

43. Tp2i< bend the knee. In this sense it is put for T\^Tl hnp. 
hiph. of Tpa. Those who take the word to be Coptic render it vari- 
ously, — bow all, bow the head, cast thyself down. 

45. nass ross Tsaphenath-paneach, in the Septuagint {J/ovS-ofji- 
(pavrfx' Revelator occulti, Kimchi. This is founded on an attempted 
Hebrew derivation. ^ojttJp koct^ov in Oxf. MS., servator mundi, Je- 
rome. These point to a Coptic origin. Recent Egyptologists give 
P-sont-em-ph-anh, the-salvation-of-the-life or world. This is a high- 
flowing title, in keeping with Eastern phraseology. W&i* Asenath, 
perhaps belonging to Neith, or worshipper of Neith, a goddess corre- 
sponding to Athene of the Greeks. :?ns ^1*3 Potiphera', seems to be 
a variation of -is^ia Potiphar (xxxvii. 36). "jk or *jia On = Oein, 
light, sun ; on the monuments ta-ra, house of the sun. XOagxa rpa (Jer. 
xliii. 13), Heliopolis, north of Memphis, on the east bank of the Nile. 

51. FffijtfQ Menasheh, causing to forget. 

52. C^.sx Ephraim, double fruit. 



XLI. 1. And it came to pass at the end of two years of 
days, that Pharoh dreamed, and, lo, he stood by the river. 2. 
And, behold, from the river came up seven kine, fine-looking 
and fat-fleshed ; and they fed on the green. 3. And, behold, 
seven other kine came up after them from the river, ill-looking 
and lean-fleshed, and stood by the other kine on the bank 
of the river. 4. And the ill-looking and lean-fleshed kine 
did eat up the seven fine-looking and fat kine. And Pharoh 
awoke. 5. And he slept, and dreamed a second time : and, 
behold, seven ears of corn came up on one stalk, rank and 
good. 6. And behold seven ears, thin and blasted with the 
58 



458 JOSEPH EXALTED. 

east wind, sprang up after them. 7. And the thin ears de- 
voured the seven rank and full ears. And Pharoh awoke, 
and, behold, it was a dream. 8. And it came to pass in the 
morning that his spirit was troubled ; and he sent and called 
for all the scribes of Mizraim, and all the sages thereof : and 
Pharoh told them his dream ; and no one interpreted them to 
Pharoh. 

9. Then spake the chief butler unto Pharoh, saying, My 
sins do I remember this day. 10. Pharoh was wroth with his 
servants ; and he put me in ward in the house of the captain 
of the guards, me and the chief baker. 11. And we dreamed 
a dream in one night, I and he : each according to the inter- 
pretation of his dream dreamed we. 12. And there with us 
was a Hebrew lad, servant to the captain of the guards ; and 
we told him, and he interpreted to us our dreams : to each 
according to his dream he interpreted. 13. And it came to 
pass that, as he interpreted to us, so it was : me he restored 
to my office, and him he hanged. 

14. Then sent Pharoh and called Joseph, and they brought 
him hastily out of the pit : and he shaved, and changed his 
garments, and went in unto Pharoh. 15. And Pharoh said 
unto Joseph, A dream have I dreamed, and no one can inter- 
pret it: and I have heard say of thee, thou canst hear a dream 
to interpret it. 16. And Joseph answered Pharoh, saying, 
Not I : God shall answer to the peace of Pharoh. 17. And 
Pharoh spake unto Joseph : I was in my dream, and, behold, I 
stood upon the bank of the river. 18. And, behold, from the 
river came up seven kine, fat-fleshed and fine in form : and 
they fed on the green. 19. And, behold, seven other kine 
came up after them, poor and very ill-formed and lean-fleshed : 
I have seen none like them in all the land of Mizraim for bad- 
ness. 20. And the lean and bad kine did eat up the first 
seven fat kine. 21. And they went into them, and it could 
not be known that they had gone into them ; and their look 



GEN. XLI. 459 

was bad, as at the beginning: and I awoke. 22. And I saw 
in my dream, and, behold, seven ears came up on one stalk, 
full and good. 23. And, behold, seven ears, withered, thin, 
blasted with the east wind, sprang up after them. 24. And 
the thin ears devoured the seven good ears : and I told the 
scribes, and no one showed it to me. 

25. And Joseph said unto Pharoli, The dream of Pharoh is 
one: what the God is about to do hath he shown to Pharoh. 
26. The seven good kine are seven years ; and the seven good 
ears are seven years : it is one dream. 27. And the seven 
thin and bad kine coming up after them are seven years ; and 
the seven empty ears blasted with the east wind : they shall 
be seven years of famine. 28. This is the word that I have 
spoken unto Pharoh : what the God is about to do he hath 
shown Pharoh. 29. Behold, seven years come of great plenty 
in all the land of Mizraim. 30. Then shall arise seven years 
of famine after them, and all the plenty shall be forgotten in 
the land of Mizraim : and the famine shall consume the 
land. 31. And the plenty shall not be known in the land 
by reason of that famine afterwards ; for it shall be very 
grievous. 32. And because the dream was repeated to Pha- 
roh twice, the thing is established by the God, and the God 
hastens to do it. 33. And now let Pharoh look out a man 
discreet and wise, and set him over the land of Mizraim. 34. 
Let Pharoh proceed and appoint overseers over the land : and 
take the fifth of the land of Mizraim in the seven years of 
plenty. 35. And let them gather all the food of those good 
years that come, and lay up corn under the hand of Pharoli, 
food in the cities, and let them keep it. 36. And the food 
shall be for store for the land, for the seven years of famine 
that shall be in the land of Mizraim, and the land shall not be 
cut off by the famine. 

37. And the thing was good in the eyes of Pharoh, and in 
the eyes of all his servants. 38. And Pharoh said unto his 



460 JOSEPH EXALTED. 

servants, Can we find a man like this, in whom is the Spirit 
of God ? 

39. And Pharoh said unto Joseph, After God hath shown 
thee all this, none is so discreet and wise as thou art. 40. 
•Thou shalt be over my house, and according to thy mouth 
shall all my people behave : only in the throne will I be 
greater than thou. 41. And Pharoh said unto Joseph, See, 
I have set thee over all the land of Mizraim. 42. And Pha- 
roh took his ring from his hand and put it upon Joseph's 
hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a 
gold chain about his neck. 43. And he made him ride in the 
second chariot which he had ; and they cried before him, Bow 
the knee. And he set him over all the land of Mizraim. 44. 
And Pharoh said unto Joseph, I am Pharoh, and without thee 
shall no man lift up his hand or foot in all the land of Miz- 
raim. 45. And Pharoh called Joseph's name Zaphenathpa- 
neah ; and he gave him Asenath, daughter of Potiphera, priest 
of On, to wife. And Joseph went out over the land of Miz- 
raim. 46. And Joseph was the son of thirty years when he 
stood before Pharoh king of Mizraim. And Joseph went out 
from the face of Pharoh, and passed through all the land of 
Mizraim. 

47. And the land yielded in the seven years of plenty by 
handfuls. 48. And he gathered all the food of the seven 
years which were in the land of Mizraim, and laid up food in 
the cities : the food of the field which was around every city 
laid he up therein. 49. And Joseph gathered corn as the 
sand of the sea very much, until he left numbering, because 
there was no number. 

50. And unto Joseph were born two sons before the year of 
the famine came, whom Asenath, daughter of Potiphera, priest 
of On, bare unto him. 51. And Joseph called the name of 
the first-born Menasseh : For God hath made me forget all 
my toil and all my father's house. 52. And the name of the 



GEN. XLI. 461 

second called he Ephraim : For God hath made me fruitful 
in the land of my affliction. 

53. Then were finished the seven years of plenty that was 
in the land of Mizraim. 54. And the seven years of famine 
began to come, according as Joseph had said ; and there was 
famine in all the land, and in the land of Mizraim there was 
bread. 55. And all the land of Mizraim famished, and the peo- 
ple cried to Pharoh for bread ; and Pliaroh said unto all Miz- 
raim, Go unto Joseph : what he saith to you, do. 56. And the 
famine was over all the face of the land ; and Joseph opened 
all places in which there was food, and sold unto Mizraim ; 
and the famine was severe in the land of Mizraim. 57. And 
all the land came into Mizraim to buy, unto Joseph ; for the 
famine was severe in all the land. 



Here we have the double dream of Pharoh interpreted by Joseph, in 
consequence of which he is elevated over all the land of Egypt. 

1-8. The dreams are recited. By the river. In the dream Pha- 
roh supposes himself on the banks of the Nile. On the green. The 
original word denotes the reed, or marsh grass, on the banks of the 
Nile. The cow is a very significant emblem of fruitful nature among 
the Egyptians, the hieroglyphic symbol of the earth and of agriculture ; 
and the form in which Isis the goddess of the earth was adored. 5-7. 
Dreamed a second time. The repetition is designed to confirm the 
warning given, as Joseph afterwards explains (v. 32). Corn is the 
natural emblem of fertility and nurture. Blasted with the east wind. 
The east wind is any wind coming from the east of the meridian, and 
may be a southeast or a northeast, as well as a direct east. The He- 
brews were wont to speak only of the four winds, and, therefore, must 
have used the name of each with great latitude. The blasting wind in 
Egypt is said to be usually from the southeast. And, behold, it was a 
dream. The impression was so distinct as to be taken for the reality, 
until he awoke and perceived that it was only a dream. 8. His spirit 
was troubled. Like the officers in the prison (xl. 6), he could not get 
rid of the feeling that the twofold dream portended some momentous 
event. The scribes, — the hieroglyphs, who belonged to the priestly 



462 JOSEPH EXALTED. 

caste, and whose primary business was to make hieroglyphic and other 
inscriptions ; while they were wont to consult the stars, interpret 
dreams, practise soothsaying, and pursue the other occult arts. The 
sages ; whose chief business was the cultivation of the various arts 
above mentioned, while the engraving or inscribing department strictly 
belonged to the hieroglyphs or scribes. His dream; the twofold 
dream. Interpreted them, — the two dreams. 

9-13. The chief butler now calls Joseph to mind, and mentions his 
gift to Pharoh. My sins. His offence against Pharoh. His ingrati- 
tude in forgetting Joseph for two years does not perhaps occur to him 
as a sin. A Hebrew lad. The Egyptians were evidently well ac- 
quainted with the Hebrew race, at a time when Israel had only a fam- 
ily. Him he hanged. The phrase is worthy of note, as a specimen 
of pithy breviloquence. Him he declared that the dream foreboded 
that Pharoh would hang. 

14-24. Pharoh sends for Joseph, who is hastily brought from the 
prison. He shaved. The Egyptians were accustomed to shave the 
head and beard, except in times of mourning (Herod, ii. 32). Canst 
hear a dream to interpret it, — needest only to hear in order to interpret 
it. Not I: God shall answer. According to his uniform habit Joseph 
ascribes the gift that is in him to God. To the peace of Pharoh, — so 
that Pharoh may reap the advantage. Inform. This takes the place 
of " in look," in the former account. Other slight variations in the 
terms occur. And they went into them, — into their stomachs. 

25-36. Joseph now proceeds to interpret the dream, and offer coun- 
sel suitable to the emergency. What the God is about to do. The 
God, the one true, living, eternal God, in opposition to all false gods. 
And because the dream was repeated. This is explained to denote the 
certainty and immediateness of the event. The beautiful elucidation 
of the dream needs no comment. 33-36. Joseph now naturally passes 
from the interpreter to the adviser. He is all himself on this critical 
occasion. His presence of mind never forsakes him. The openness 
of heart and readiness of speech, for which he was early distinguished, 
now stand him in good stead. His thorough self-command arises from 
spontaneously throwing himself, with all his heart, into the great na- 
tional emergency which is before his mind. And his native simplicity 
of heart, practical good sense, and force of character break forth into 
unasked, but not unaccepted counsel. A man discreet, — intelligent, 
capable of understanding the occasion ; wise, prudent, capable of acting 



GEN. XLL 463 

accordingly. Let Pharoh proceed, — take the following steps. Take 
the fifth of the produce of the land. Under the hand of Pharoh. Un- 
der his supreme control. The measures here suggested to Pharoh 
were, we must suppose, in conformity with the civil institutions of the 
country. The exaction of a fifth, or two tithes, during the period of 
plenty, may have been an extraordinary measure, which the absolute 
power of the monarch enabled him to enforce for the public safety. 
The sovereign was probably dependent for his revenues on the pro- 
duce of the crown lands, certain taxes on exports or imports, and occa- 
sional gifts or forced contributions from his subjects. This extraordinary 
fifth was, probably, of the last description, and was fully warranted 
by the coming emergency. The "gathering up of all the food" may 
imply that, in addition to the fifth, large purchases of corn were made 
by the government out of the surplus produce of the country. 

37-46. Pharoh approves of his counsel, and selects him as " the 
discreet and wise man " for carrying it into effect. In whom is the 
Spirit of God. He acknowledges the gift that is in Joseph to be from 
God. All my people behave, — dispose or order their conduct, a pecu- 
liar meaning of this word, which usually signifies to kiss. His ring. 
His signet-ring gave Joseph the delegated power of the sovereign, and 
constituted him his prime minister or grand vizier. Vestures of fine 
linen. Egypt was celebrated for its flax, and for the fineness of its 
textures. The priests were arrayed in official robes of linen, and no 
man was allowed to enter a temple in a woollen garment (Herod, ii. 
37, 81). A gold chain about his neck. This was a badge of office 
worn in Egypt by the judge and the prime minister. It had a similar 
use in Persia and Babylonia (Dan. v. 7). The second chariot. Egypt 
was noted for chariots, both for peaceful and for warlike purposes 
(Herod, ii. 108). The second in the public procession was assigned 
to Joseph. Bow the knee. The various explications of this proclama- 
tion agree in denoting a form of obeisance, with which Joseph was to 
be honored. / am Pharoh, the king (xii. 15). Without thee shall no 
man lift up his hand or foot. Thou art next to me, and without thee 
no man shall act or move. Zaphenath-paneah. Pharoh designates 
him the preserver of life, as the interpreter of the dream and the pro- 
poser of the plan by which the country was saved from famine. He 
thus naturalizes him so far as to render his civil status compatible with 
his official rank. Asenath. The priests were the highest and most 
privileged class in Egypt. Intermarriage with this caste at once deter- 



464 JOSEPH EXALTED. 

mined the social position of the wondrous foreigner. His father-in-law- 
was priest of On, a city dedicated to the worship of the sun. 

With our Western and modern habit we may at the first glance be 
surprised to find a stranger of a despised race suddenly elevated to the 
second place in the kingdom. But in ancient and Eastern govern- 
ments, which were of a despotic character, such changes, depending on 
the will of the sovereign, were by no means unusual. Secondly, the 
conviction that " the Spirit of God was in " the mysterious stranger, 
was sufficient to overbear all opposing feelings or customs. And, lastly, 
it was assumed and acted on, as a self-evident fact, that the illustrious 
stranger could have no possible objection to be incorporated into the most 
ancient of nations, and allied with its noblest families. We may imagine 
that Joseph would find an insuperable difficulty in becoming a citizen of 
Egypt or a son-in-law of the priest of the sun. But we should not forget 
that the world was yet too young to have arrived at the rigid and sharply- 
defined systems of polytheism or allotheism to which we are accustomed. 
Some gray streaks of a pure monotheism, of the knowledge of the one 
true God, still gleamed across the sky of human memory. Some faint 
traces of one common brotherhood among mankind still lingered in the 
recollections of the past. The Pharoh of Abraham's day feels the 
power of him whose name is Jehovah (xii. 17). Abimelek ac- 
knowledges the God of Abraham and Isaac (xx. 3-7, xxi. 22, 23, 
xxvi. 28, 29). And while Joseph is frank and faithful in acknowledg- 
ing the true God before the king of Egypt, Pharoh himself is not slow 
to recognize the man in whom the Spirit of God is. Having experi- 
enced the omniscience and omnipotence of Joseph's God, he was pre- 
pared, no doubt, not only himself to offer him such adoration as he was 
wont to pay to his national gods, but also to allow Joseph full liberty 
to worship the God of his fathers, and to bring up his family in that 
faith. 

Joseph was now in his thirtieth year, and had consequently been 
thirteen years in Egypt, most part of which interval he had probably 
spent in prison. This was the age for manly service (Num. iv. 3). 
He immediately enters upon his office. 

47-49. The fulfilment of the dream here commences. By hand- 
fuls. Not in single stalks or grains, but in handfuls compared with 
the former yield. It is probable that a fifth of the present unprece- 
dented yield was sufficient for the sustenance of the inhabitants. 
Another fifth was rendered to the government, and the remaining 



GEN. XLI. 465 

three fifths were stored up or sold to the state or the foreign broker at 
a low price. He left numbering because there was no number. This 
denotes that the store was immense, and not perhaps that modes of 
expressing the number failed. 

50-52. Two sons were born to Joseph during the seven years of 
plenty. Menasseh. God made him forget his toil and his father's house. 
Neither absolutely. He remembered his toils in the very utterance of 
this sentence. And he tenderly and intensely remembered his father's 
house. But he is grateful to God, who builds him a home, with all 
its soothing joys, even in the land of his exile. His heart again re- 
sponds to long untasted joys. Fruitful in the land of my affliction. 
It is still, we perceive, the land of his affliction. But why does no 
message go from Joseph to his mourning father ? For many reasons. 
First, he does not know the state of things at home. Secondly, he 
may not wish to open up the dark and bloody treachery of his brothers 
to his aged parent. But, thirdly, he bears in mind those early dreams 
of his childhood. All his subsequent experience has confirmed him in 
the belief that they will one day be fulfilled. But that fulfilment im- 
plies the submission not only of his brothers, but of his father. This 
is too delicate a matter for him to interfere in. He will leave it en- 
tirely to the all-wise providence of his God to bring about that strange 
issue. Joseph, therefore, is true to his life-long character. He leaves 
all in the hand of God, and awaits in anxious, but silent hope, the days 
when he will see his father and his brethren. 

53-57. The commencement and the extent of the famine are now 
noted. As Joseph had said. The fulfilment is as perfect in the one 
part as in the other. In all the lands, — all the lands adjacent to 
Egypt ; such as Arabia and Palestine. The word all in popular dis- 
course is taken in a relative sense, to be ascertained by the context. 
We are not aware that this famine was felt beyond the distance of 
Hebron. Go unto Joseph (40-44). Pharoh has had reason to trust 
Joseph more and more, and now he adheres to his purpose of sending 
his people to him. All the face of the land of Egypt. And Joseph 
opened all places in which there was food, — all the stores in every 
city. And sold unto Mizraim. The stores under Pharoh's hand were 
public property, obtained either by lawful taxation or by purchase. 
It was a great public benefit to sell this grain, that had been provi- 
dently kept in store, at a moderate price, and thus preserve the lives 
of a nation during a seven years' famine. All the land. This is to be 
understood of the countries in the neighborhood of Egypt. Famines 
59 



4:66 JOSEPH AND TEN OF HIS BRETHREN. 

in these countries were not unusual. We have read already of two 
famines in Palestine that did not extend to Egypt (xii. 10, xxvi. 1). 
The fertility of Egypt depends on the rise of the waters of the Nile • 
to a certain point, at which they will reach all the country. If it fall 
short of that point, there will be a deficiency in the crops proportioned 
to the deficiency in the rise. The rise of the Nile depends on the 
tropical rains by which the lake is supplied from which it flows. 
These rains depend on the clouds wafted by the winds from the basin 
of the Mediterranean Sea. The amount of these piles of vapor will 
depend on the access and strength of the solar heat producing evapo- 
ration from the surface of that inland sea. The same cause, therefore, 
may withhold rain from central Africa, and from all the lands that are 
watered from the Mediterranean. The duration of the extraordinary 
plenty was indeed wonderful. But such periods of excess are gener- 
ally followed by corresponding periods of deficiency over the same 
area. This prepares the way for the arrival of Joseph's kindred in 
Egypt. 



LXX. JOSEPH AND TEN OF HIS BRETHREN. — Gen. xlii. 

1. ^ind fragment, crumb, hence grain, ha pure, winnowed, hence 
corn. 

6. e^ttj ruler, governor, hence Sultan. Not elsewhere found in the 
Pentateuch. 

25. iba vessel, here any portable article in which grain may be con- 
veyed, pb sack, the very word which remains in our language to this 
day. i-inrrax bag. 

XLII. 1. And Jacob saw that there was grain in Mizraim, 
and Jacob said unto his sons, Why do ye look one at another? 
2. And he said, Behold, I have heard that there is grain in 
Mizraim : go down thither, and buy for us thence ; and we 
shall live and not die. 3. And Joseph's ten brethren went 
down to buy corn .in Mizraim. 4. And Benjamin, Joseph's 
brother, Jacob sent not with his brethren ; for he said, Lest 
mischief befall him. 5. And the sons of Israel went to buy 
among those that went ; for the famine was in the land of 
Kenaan. 



GEN. XLII. 



467 



6. And Joseph was the governor over the land, that sold to 
all the people of the land : and Joseph's brethren went and 
bowed down to him with their faces to the earth. 7. And 
Joseph saw his brethren, and knew them ; and he made him- 
self strange unto them, and spake unto them roughly, and 
said unto them, Whence are ye come ? And they said, From 
the land of Kenaan, to buy food. 8. And Joseph knew his 
brethren ; and they knew not him. 9. And Joseph remem- 
bered the dreams which he had dreamed of them ; and he 
said unto them, Spies are ye : to see the nakedness of the 
land are ye come. 10. And they said unto him, Nay, my 
lord ; but thy servants are come to buy food. 11. All of us 
sons of one man are we ; true men are we : thy servants are 
not spies. 12. And he said unto them, Nay ; for to see the 
nakedness of the land are ye come. 13. And they said, 
Twelve brethren are we thy servants, sons of one man in the 
the land of Kenaan : and, behold, the youngest is with our 
father this day, and one is not. 14. And Joseph said unto 
them, This is what I spake unto you, saying, Spies are ye. 
15. Hereby ye shall be proved : by the life of Pharoh ye shall 
not go hence, unless your youngest brother come hither. 16. 
Send one of you, and let him fetch your brother ; and be ye 
bound, and let your words be proved if the truth be in you ; 
and if not, by the life of Pharoh, spies are ye. 17. And he 
put them all together in ward for three days. 

18. And Joseph said unto them on the third day, This do 
and live : the God I do fear. 19. If true men be ye, one 
brother of you shall be bound in the house of your ward ; and 
ye go, carry grain for the famine of your houses. 20. And 
your youngest brother bring ye to me, and your words shall 
be verified, and ye shall not die. And they did so. 21. And 
they said one to another, Yerily guilty are we concerning our 
brother, because we saw the distress of his soul when he be- 
sought us and we would not hear : therefore come upon us 
is this distress. .22. And Reuben answered them, saying, Said 



468 JOSEPH AND TEN OF HIS BRETHREN. 

I not unto you, saying, Sin not against the lad, and ye would 
not hear: and behold also his blood is required. 23. And 
they knew not that Joseph heard them; for the interpreter 
was betwixt them. 24. And he turned about from them, and 
wept : and he returned to them, and spake unto them, and 
took from them Simon, and bound him before their eyes. 25. 
And Joseph commanded to fill their vessels with corn, and to 
restore every man's silver into his sack, and to give them pro- 
vision for the way. And it was done to them so. 

26. And they put their grain upon their asses, and went 
thence. 27. And one opened his sack to give provender to 
his ass in the inn : and he saw his silver, and, behold, it was 
in his bag's mouth. 28. And he said unto his brethren, My 
silver is restored, and also, behold, it is in my bag : and their 
heart failed, and they trembled, saying one to another, What 
is this God hath done unto us? 29. And they went unto 
Jacob their father to the land of Kenaan, and told him all that 
befell them, saying, 30. The man who is lord of the land 
spake with us roughly, and took us for spies of the land. 31. 
And we said unto him, True men are we ; we are not spies. 
32. Twelve brethren are we, sons of one father ; one is not, 
and the youngest is this day with our father in the land of 
Kenaan. 33. And the man, the lord of the land, said unto 
us, Hereby shall I know that ye are true ; one brother of you 
leave with me, and for the famine of your houses take ye and 
go. 34. And bring your youngest brother to me : and I shall 
know that ye are not spies, that ye are true men : your 
brother will I give you, and in the land ye shall traffic. 

35. And it came to pass, as they emptied their sacks, that, 
behold, every man's bundle of silver was in his sack: and they 
saw the bundles of their silver, they and their father, and they 
were afraid. 36. And Jacob their father said unto them, Me 
have ye bereaved ; Joseph is not, and Simon is not, and Ben- 
jamin ye will take : all these things are against me. 37.. And 
Reuben said unto his father, saying, Slay two of my sons if 



GEN. XLII. 469 

I bring him not unto thee : give him into my hand, and I 
will restore him unto* thee. 38. And he said, My son shall 
not go down with you ; for his brother is dead, and he is left 
alone : and mischief shall befall him by the way in which ye 
go, and ye shall bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the 
grave. 

Twenty years, the period of Joseph's long and anxious waiting, 
have come to an end. The dreams of his boyhood are now at length 
to be fulfilled. The famine has reached the chosen family, and they 
look at one another perplexed and irresolute, not knowing what to do. 

1—5. The aged Jacob is the only man of counsel. Behold, 1 have 
heard there is grain in Mizraim : go down and buy. The ten brothers 
are sent, and Benjamin, the youngest, is retained, not merely because 
of his youth, for he was now twenty-four years of age, but because he 
was the son of his father's old age, the only son of Rachel now with 
him, and the only full brother of the lost Joseph. Lest mischief 
befall him, and so no child of Rachel would be left. Among those that 
went. The dearth was widespread in the land of Kenaan. 

6-17. The ten brothers meet with a rough reception from the lord 
of the land. The governor, — the sultan. This, we see, is a title of 
great antiquity in Egypt or Arabia. Joseph presided over the corn- 
market of the kingdom. Bowed down to him with their faces to the 
earth: Well might Joseph think of those never-to-be-forgotten dreams 
in which the sheaves and stars bowed down to him. And knew them. 
How could he fail to remember the ten full-grown men of his early 
days, when they came before him with all their peculiarities of feature, 
attitude, and mother tongue. And he made himself strange unto them. 
All that we know of Joseph's character heretofore, and throughout this 
whole affair, goes to prove that his object in all his seemingly harsh 
treatment was to get at their hearts, to test their affection toward Ben- 
jamin, and to bring them to repent of their unkindness to himself. 
They knew not him. Twenty years make a great change in a youth 
of seventeen. And besides, with his beard and head shaven, his 
Egyptian attire, his foreign tongue, and his exalted position, who could 
have recognized the stripling whom, twenty years ago, they had sold 
as a slave ? Spies are ye. This was to put a color of justice on their 
detention. To see the nakedness of the land, not its unfortified fron- 



470 JOSEPH AND TEN OF HIS BRETHREN. 

tier, which is a more recent idea, but its present impoverishment from 
the famine. Sons of one man are we. It was not likely that ten 
sons of one man would be sent on the hazardous duty of spies. And 
behold the youngest is with our father this day. It is intensely interest- 
ing to Joseph to hear that his father and full brother are still living. 
And one is not. Time has assuaged all their bitter feelings, both of 
exasperation against Joseph and of remorse for their unbrotherly con- 
duct. This little sentence, however, cannot be uttered by them, or 
heard by Joseph, without emotion. By the life of Pharoh. Joseph 
speaks in character, and uses an Egyptian asseveration. Send one of 
you. This proposal is enough to strike terror into their hearts. The 
return of one would be a heavy, perhaps a fatal blow to their father. 
And how can one brave the perils of the way ? They cannot bring 
themselves to concur in this plan. Sooner will they all go to prison, 
as accordingly they do. Joseph is not without a strong conviction of 
incumbent duty in all this. He knows he has been put in the posi- 
tion of lord over his brethren in the foreordination of God, and he 
feels bound to make this authority a reality for their moral good. 

18-25. After three days Joseph reverses the numbers, allowing 
nine to return home, and retaining one. This do and live. Joseph, 
notwithstanding the arbitrary power which his office enabled him to 
exercise, proves himself to be free from caprice and unnecessary se- 
verity. He affords them a fair opportunity of proving their words 
true, before putting them to death on suspicion of espionage. The 
God do I fear. A singular sentence from the lord paramount of 
Egypt ! It implies that the true God was not yet unknown in Egypt. 
We have heard the confession of this great truth already from the 
lips of Pharoh (xli. 38, 39). But it intimates to the brothers the as- 
tonishing and hopeful fact that the grand vizier serves the same great 
Being whom they and their fathers have known and worshipped ; and 
gives them a plain hint that they will be dealt with according to the 
just law of heaven. Carry grain for your houses. The governor then 
is touched with some feeling for their famishing households. The 
brothers, though honoring their aged father as the patriarch of their 
race, had now their separate establishments. Twelve households had 
to be supplied with bread. The journey to Egypt was not to be un- 
dertaken more than once a year if possible, as the distance from He- 
bron was upwards of two hundred miles. Hence the ten brothers had 
with them all their available beasts of burden, with the needful retinue 
of servants. We need not be surprised that these are not specially 



GEN. XLII. 471 

enumerated, as it is the manner of Scripture to leave the secondary 
matters to the intelligence and experience of the reader, unless, as 
in the case of Abraham's three hundred and eighteen trained servants, 
they happen to be of essential moment in the process of events. Tour 
youngest brother. Joseph longs to see his full brother alive, whom he 
left at home a child of four summers. Verily guilty are we concerning 
our brother. Their affliction is beginning to bear the fruit of repent- 
ance. Because we saw the distress of his soul when he besought us, and 
we would not hear. How vividly is the scene of Joseph's sale here 
brought before us. It now appears that he besought them to spare 
him, and they would not hear ! This distress. Retribution has come 
at last. His blood is required. Reuben justly upbraids them with 
their hardness of heart. Their brother's blood is required ; for murder 
was intended, and when he was sold his death was pretended. The 
interpreter was betwixt them. The dragoman was employed in holding 
intercourse with them. But Joseph heard the spontaneous expressions 
of remorse, coming unprompted from their lips. The fountain of af- 
fection is deeply stirred. He cannot repress the rising tear. He has 
to retire for a time to recover his composure. He now takes, not 
Reuben, who was not to blame, but Simon, the next eldest, and binds 
him before them : a speaking act. He then gives orders to supply 
them with corn, deposit their money in their sacks without their knowl- 
edge, and furnish them with provision for the way. Joseph feels, per- 
haps, that he cannot take money from his father. He will pay for 
the corn out of his own funds. But he cannot openly return the money 
to his brothers without more explanation than he wishes at present to 
give. 

26-34. The nine return home and record their wonderful adventure. 
In the inn ; the lodge or place where they stopped for the night. This 
place was not yet perhaps provided with even the shelter of a roof. 
It was merely the usual place of halting. They would probably oc- 
cupy six or seven days on the journey. Apparently at the first stage 
one opened his sack to give provender to his ass. The discovery of 
the silver in its mouth strikes them with terror. In a strange land 
and with an uneasy conscience they are easily alarmed. It was not 
convenient or necessary to open all the bags on the way, and so they 
make no further discovery. 

35—38. On emptying the other sacks all the silver turns up, to their 
great amazement and consternation. Jacob laments the loss of his 
son. Reuben offers two of his sons to Jacob as pledges for Benjamin, 



472 JOSEPH AND HIS ELEVEN BRETHREN. 

to be slain if he did not bring him back in safety. The sorrowing 
parent cannot yet bring himself to consent to Benjamin's departure on 
this hazardous journey. And ye shall bring down. Jacob either 
speaks here in the querulous tone of afflicted old age, or he had come 
to know or suspect that his brothers had some hand in the disappear- 
ance of Joseph. 



LXXI. JOSEPH AND HIS ELEVEN BRETHREN. — Gen. xliii. 

11. e£m honey, from the bee, or sirup from the juice of the grape. 
B^BS pistachio nuts. 1J?'^ almond tree ; r. awake. The tree is also 
called nS>'. Some refer the former to the fruit, the latter to the tree. 

XLIII. 1. And the famine was sore in the land. 2. And 
it came to pass, when they had eaten up the grain which they 
had brought from Mizraim, that their father said to them, Re- 
turn : buy us a little food. 3. And Judah said unto him, say- 
ing, The man solemnly protested unto us, saying, Ye shall 
not see my face, except your brother be with you. 4. If thou 
wilt send our brother with us, we will go down and buy thee 
food. 5. And if thou wilt not send him, we will not go down; 
for the man said unto us, Ye shall not see my face, except 
your brother be with you. 6. And Israel said, Why have ye 
done me evil, to tell the man whether ye had yet a brother ? 

7. And they said, The man straitly asked of us and of our 
kindred, saying, Is your father yet alive? Have ye a brother? 
And we told him according to these words. Could we cer- 
tainly know that he would say, Bring your brother down ? 

8. And Judah said unto Israel his father, Send the lad with 
me, and we will arise and go ; and we shall live and not die, 
both we and thou and our little ones. 9. I will be surety for 
him ; of my hand shalt thou require him. If I bring him not 
unto thee, and set him before thee, then let me have sinned 



GEN. XLIII. 473 

against thee all my days. 10. For unless we had lingered, 
surely now we had returned this second time. 

11. And Israel their father said unto them, If so now, this 
do : take of the best of the land in your vessels, and carry 
down the man a present, a little balm and a little honey, 
spices and myrrh, nuts and almonds. 12. And second silver 
take in your hand : and the silver that was returned in the 
mouth of your bags take back in your hand ; mayhap it was a 
mistake. 13. And your brother take : and arise, return to 
the man, 14. And God Almighty give you mercy before the 
man, and he shall send you your other brother and Benjamin. 
And I, if I am bereaved, I am bereaved. 15. And the men 
took this present, and double silver took they in their hand, 
and Benjamin ; and rose up, and went down to Mizraim, and 
stood before Joseph. 

16. And Joseph saw with them Benjamin, and said to him 
that was over his house, Bring these men in, and slay and 
make ready ; for these men shall eat with me at noon. 17. 
And the man did as Joseph said ; and the man brought 
the men to Joseph's house. 18. And the men were afraid 
because they were brought to Joseph's house ; and they said, 
On account of the money that was returned in our bags at the 
first are we brought in ; to overbear us, and fall upon us, and 
take us for servants, and our asses. 

19. And they came near to the man who was over Joseph's 
house, and they spake to him at the door of the house. 20. 
And said, my lord, we came down indeed at the first to buy 
food. 21. And it came to pass, when we came to the inn, 
that we opened our bags, and, behold, every man's silver was 
in the mouth of his bag, — our silver in full weight : and we 
brought it back in our hand. 22. And other silver have we 
brought down in our hand to buy food : we know not who 
put our silver in our bags. 23. And he said, Peace be to you ; 
fear not : your God, and the God of your father hath given 
you treasure in your bags : your silver came to me. And 
GO 



474 JOSEPH AND HIS ELEVEN BRETHREN. 

he brought out unto them Simon. 24. And the man brought 
the men into Joseph's house, and got water, and they washed 
their feet ; and he gave provender to their asses. 25. And 
they made ready the present for Joseph's coming at noon ; 
for they heard that there they should eat bread. 

26. And Joseph came home, and they brought him the 
present which was in their hand into the house, and they 
bowed to him to the earth. 27. And he asked them of their 
welfare ; and he said, Is it well with your father, the old man 
of whom ye spake? Is he yet alive ? 28. And they answered, 
It is well with thy servant, our father ; he is yet alive. And 
they bent the head and bowed down. 29. And he lifted up 
his eyes, and saw Benjamin his brother, his mother's son, and 
said, Is this joxiy youngest brother of whom ye told me ? And 
he said, God be gracious unto thee, my son. 30. And Joseph 
hastened away ; for his bowels yearned upon his brother, and 
he sought to weep ; and he went into his chamber and wept 
there. 31. And he washed his face, and came out, and re- 
frained himself, and said, Set on bread. 32. And they set for 
him by himself, and for them by themselves, and for the Miz- 
rites who ate with him by themselves ; because the Mizrites 
might not eat bread with the Hebrews ; for that is an abomi- 
nation to the Mizrites. 33. And they sat in his presence, the 
first-born according to his first birth, and the youngest ac- 
cording to his youth : and the men marvelled one at another. 
34. And he sent messes from before him unto them: and 
Benjamin's mess exceeded the messes of them all five times. 
And they drank and were merry with him. 



The eleven brothers are now to bow down before Joseph. 

1-10. The famine was sore. The pressure began to be felt more 
and more. The twelve households had at length consumed all the 
corn they had purchased, and the famine still pressed heavily upon 
them. Jacob directs them to return. And Judah said. Reuben had 
offended, and could not come forward. Simon and Levi had also 



GEN. XLIII. 475 

grieved their father by the treacherous slaughter of the Shekemites. 
Judah therefore speaks. Is your father yet alive ? Have ye a brother ? 
These questions do not come out in the previous narrative, on account 
of its brevity. But how pointed they are, and how true to Joseph's 
yearnings ! They explain how it was that these particulars came out 
in the replies of the brothers to Joseph. For the charge of being spies 
did not call for them in exculpation. Judah now uses all the argu- 
ments the case would admit of, to persuade his father to allow Benja- 
min to go with them. He closes with the emphatic sentence, If J 
bring him not unto thee, and set him before thee, then let me have sinned 
against thee all my days ; that is, let me bear the blame, and of course 
the penalty of having sinned against thee in so tender a point. Both 
Judah and his father knew that this was a matter that touched the 
interest of the former very deeply. Reuben was bearing the blame 
of a grievous sin, and had no hope of the birthright. Simon and Levi 
were also bearing blame, and, besides, had not the natural right, which 
belonged only to Reuben. Judah came next, and a failure in securing 
the safe return of Benjamin might set him also aside. He undertakes 
to run this risk. 

11-15. Jacob at length reluctantly sends Benjamin with them. 
He employs all means, as is usual with him, of securing a favorable 
result. The best of the land, — the sung or celebrated products of the 
land. A little honey. Palestine abounded with bee honey. A sirup 
obtained by boiling clown the juice of the grape was also called by the 
same name, and formed an article of commerce. Nuts. These are 
supposed to be pistachio nuts, from the pistacia vera, a tree resembling 
the terebinth, a native of Anatolia, Syria, and Palestine. Almonds. 
The almond tree buds or flowers earlier in the spring than other trees. 
It is a native of Palestine, Syria, and Persia. For the other products 
see xxxvii. 25. Other silver ; not double silver, but a second sum for 
the new purchase. God Almighty, — the Great Spirit, who can dispose 
the hearts of men as he pleases. Jacob looks up to heaven for a bless- 
ing, while he uses the means. If I am bereaved, I am bereaved. This 
is the expression of acquiescence in whatever may be the will of Prov- 
idence. Double silver, — that which was returned and that which was 
to pay for a second supply of corn. 

16-18. The invitation into Joseph's house fills the brothers with 
alarm. Saw with them Benjamin. This was an unspeakable relief to 
Joseph, who was afraid that his full brother, also the favorite of his 
father, might have incurred the envy and persecution of the brothers. 



476 JOSEPH AND HIS ELEVEN BRETHREN. 

Brought the men to Joseph's house. This he eventually did, but not 
till after the conference between him and them took place. The men 
were afraid of a plot to rob them of their liberty and property. 

19-25. They are encouraged by the steward of Joseph's house to 
lay aside their fears, and prepare their present. Spake to him at the 
door of the house. This was, of course, before they entered. When 
we came to the inn. The relater is prone to lump matters in the nar- 
ration, for the sake of brevity. They began to " open their bags " at 
the first lodging-place, and finished the process at the last when they 
got home. Other silver. This explains the phrase " second silver" in 
v. 12. Peace be to you. Be at rest. All is well. Tour God. The 
steward of Joseph expresses himself as one who fears and trusts God, 
the God of the Hebrews, who had displayed his omniscience and om- 
nipotence in Egypt. He brought out unto them Simon. While they 
still linger at the entrance, the considerate steward bethought himself 
of bringing out Simon to them, which reassured their hearts, and in- 
duced them to enter willingly. He now succeeds therefore in bringing 
them in, and then bestows upon them the usual attentions of Eastern 
hospitality. They now " make ready their present." 

26-34. They are now entertained by Joseph. They brought the 
present, and made a lowly obeisance before him. They bent the head. 
See xxiv. 26. God be gracious unto thee, my son. His kind treatment 
of Benjamin, on whose presence he had so much insisted, was calcula- 
ted to reassure the brothers. The latter was born in his thirteenth 
year, and therefore he was entitled to assume the paternal style in re- 
gard to him. Joseph still appeals with a natural and unconstrained 
reverence to his own God. And Joseph hastened away. The little 
touch of tenderness he had involuntarily thrown into his address to 
Benjamin, is too much for his feelings, which yearn towards his brother, 
and he is obliged to retreat to his chamber to conceal his tears and 
compose his countenance. They set for him by himself. As the gov- 
ernor, or as connected by affinity with the priestly caste, Joseph does 
not eat with the other Egyptians. The Egyptians cannot eat with the 
Hebrews. That is an abomination to the Mizrites. For the Hebrews 
partook of the flesh of kine, both male and female. But Herodotus 
informs us (II. 41), that "male kine, if clean, are used by the Egyp- 
tians, but the females they are not allowed to sacrifice, since they are 
sacred to Isis." And he adds that " a native of Egypt will not kiss a 
Greek, use his knife, his spit, or his cauldron, or taste the flesh cut 
with a Greek knife." They considered all foreigners unclean, and 



GEN. XLIV. 477 

therefore refused to eat with them (see Rawlinsori's Herod, on p. q.). 
They sat in his presence ; arranged according to the order of their 
birth, to their great amazement. Egypt was to them a land of won- 
ders, and Egypt's sultan a man of wonder. Benjamin's mess. The 
honored guest was distinguished by a larger or daintier portion of the 
fare (1 Sam. ix. 23, 24 ; Homer, II. 7, 321). A double portion was 
assigned to the Spartan kings. The fivefold division was prominent 
in Egyptian affairs (xli. 34 ; xlv. 22 ; xlvii. 2, 24, 26). And were 
merry. They drank freely, so as to" be exhilarated, because their cares 
were dissipated by the kindness they were receiving, the presence of 
Simon, and the attention paid to Benjamin. 



LXXII. THE TEN BROTHERS PROVED. — Gen. xliv. 

XLIV. 1. And he commanded him that was over his house, 
saying, Fill the men's bags with food, as much as they can 
carry, and put the silver of each in his bag's mouth. 2. And 
my cup, the silver cup, put in the bag's mouth of the youngest, 
and the silver for his grain. And he did according to the word 
of Joseph which he spake. 3. The morning shone ; and the 
men were sent away, they and their asses. 4. They had come 
out of the city not very far, and Joseph said to him that was 
over his house, Up, follow after the men ; and overtake them, 
and say unto them, Why have ye requited evil for good ? 5. 
Is it not this in which my lord drinketh, and whereby indeed 
he divineth ? Ye have done evil in so doing. 

6. And he overtook them, and spake unto them these words. 
7. And they said unto him, Why speaketh my lord according 
to these words ? Ear be thy servants from doing according to 
this thing. 8. Behold, silver which we found in our bags' 
mouths we brought back to thee from the land of Kenaan : 
and how should we steal from thy lord's house silver or gold ? 
9. With whomsoever of thy servants it be found, both let him 
die, and also we will be servants to my lord. 10. And he said, 
Now also according to your words let it be : he with whom it 



478 THE TEN BROTHERS PROVED. 

is found shall be my servant, and ye shall be blameless. 11. 
And they hasted, and laid every man his bag on the earth, and 
opened every man his bag. 12. And he searched, beginning 
at the eldest and ending at the youngest, and the cup was found 
in Benjamin's bag. 

13. And they rent their garments, and laded every man his 
ass, and returned to the city. 14. And Judah went and his 
brethren to Joseph's house, and he was yet there : and they 
fell before him on the earth. 15. And Joseph said unto them, 
What deed is this that ye have done ? Wot ye not that such 
a man as I doth certainly divine ? 16. And Judah said, What 
shall we say unto my lord ? What shall we speak ? And how 
shall we clear ourselves ? The God hath found out the iniquity 
of thy servants : behold, we are servants to my lord, both we, 
and he in whose hand the cup is found. 17. And he said, Far 
let me be from doing this : the man in whose hand the cup is 
found, he shall be my servant ; and ye go up in peace to your 
father. 11 §H 41. 

18. And Judah came near unto him, and said, my lord, 
let thy servant now speak a word in the ears of my lord, and 
let not thine anger burn against thy servant : for so art thou 
as Pharoh. 19. My lord asked his servants, saying, Have ye a 
father or a brother ? 20. And we said unto my lord, We have 
an aged father, and a young lad of his old age ; and his brother 
is dead, and he is left alone of his mother, and his father lov- 
eth him. 21. And thou saidst unto thy servants, Bring him 
unto me ; and let me set mine eyes upon him. 22. And we 
said unto my lord, The lad cannot leave his father : and he 
shall leave his father, and he shall die. 23. And thou saidst 
unto thy servants, Except your youngest brother come down 
with you, ye shall see my face no more. 24. And it came to 
pass that we went up unto thy servant my father, and told him 
the words of my lord. 25. And our father said, Return, buy 
ns a little food. 26. And we said, We cannot go down : if our 
youngest brother be with us, then will we go down ; for we 



GEN. XLIV. £79 

may not see the man's face, except our youngest brother be 
with us. 27. And thy servant my father said unto us, Ye 
know that my wife bare me two sons. 28. And the one went 
out from me, and I said, Surely he is torn in pieces ; and I 
have not seen him since. 29. And ye shall take this also from 
before me, and evil shall befall him, and ye shall bring down 
my gray hairs in evil to the grave. 30. And now when I go 
unto thy servant my father, and the lad is not with us, and his 
soul is bound up in his soul, 31. Then it shall come to pass 
when he seeth that the lad is not, that he will die : and thy 
servants shall bring down the gray hairs of thy servant our 
father in sorrow to the grave. 32. For thy servant became 
surety for the lad with my father, saying, If I bring him not 
unto thee, then let me have sinned against my father all my 
days. 33. And now let thy servant now abide instead of the 
lad a servant to my lord ; and let the lad go up with his breth- 
ren. 34. For how shall I go up to my father, and the lad not 
with me, lest I see the evil that shall come upon my father. 

Joseph has had the satisfaction of seeing his brother Benjamin safe 
and well. He has heard his brothers acknowledging their guilt con- 
cerning himself. He resolves to put their attachment to Benjamin, 
and the genuineness of their change of disposition, to a test that will 
at the same time expose Benjamin to no hazard. 

1—5. And my cup. Besides returning each man's money as before, 
a silver cup of Joseph's is put in Benjamin's bag, after which, when 
daylight comes, they are dismissed. They are scarcely out of the town 
when Joseph's steward is ordered to overtake them, and charge them 
with stealing the cup. And whereby indeed he divineth. Divining by 
cups, we learn from this, was a common custom in Egypt (Herod. II. 
83). It is here mentioned to enhance the value of the cup. Whether 
Joseph really practised any sort of divination cannot be determined 
from this passage. 

6-12. The cup is found in Benjamin's bag. Spake unto them these 
words. The words of Joseph, supplying of course the mention of the 
cup which is expressed in the text only by the pronoun this. We 
brought back to thee. Silver that we might have retained, and to 



480 THE TEN BROTHERS PROVED. 

which you made no claim when we tendered it, we brought back. 
How or why should we therefore steal silver ? Now also according to 
your words let it be. He adopts their terms with a mitigation. He 
with whom the cup is found shall become a slave for life, and the rest 
be acquitted. The steward searches from the eldest to the youngest. 
The cup is found where it was put. 

13-17. They rent their garments ; the natural token of a sorrow 
that knows no remedy. And Judah went. He had pledged himself 
for the safety of Benjamin to his father. And he was yet there ; await- 
ing no doubt the result which he anticipated. They fell before him on 
the earth. It is no longer a bending of the head or bowing of the 
body, but the posture of deepest humiliation. How deeply that early 
dream penetrated into the stern reality ! Wot ye not that such a man as 
I doth certainly divine ? Joseph keeps up the show of resentment for 
a little longer, and brings out from Judah the most pathetic plea of its 
kind that ever was uttered. The God, the great and only God, hath 
found out the iniquity of thy servants ; in our dark and treacherous 
dealing with our brother. Behold, we are servants to my lord. He re- 
signs himself and all to perpetual bondage, as the doom of a just God 
upon their still-remembered crime. He shall be my servant ; and ye, 
go up in peace to your father. Now is the test applied with the nicest 
adjustment. Now is the moment of agony and suspense to Joseph. 
"Will my brothers prove true ? says he within himself. Will Judah 
prove adequate to the occasion ? say we. His pleading with his father 
augured well. 

18-34. And Judah came near unto him. He is going to surrender 
himself as a slave for life, that Benjamin may go home with his broth- 
ers, who are permitted to depart. Let thy servant now speak a word in 
the ears of my lord. There is nothing here but respectful calmness of 
demeanor. And let not thine anger burn against thy servant. He intu- 
itively feels that the grand vizier is a man of like feelings with him- 
self. He will surmount the distinction of rank, and stand with him on 
the ground of a common humanity. For so art thou as Pharoh. Thou 
hast power to grant or withhold my request. This forms the exordium 
of the speech. Then follows the plea. This consists in a simple 
statement of the facts, which Judah expects to have its native effect 
upon a rightly-constituted heart. We will not touch this statement, 
except to explain two or three expressions. A young lad, — a com- 
parative youth. Let me set mine eyes upon him, — regard him with 
favor and kindness. He shall leave his father and he shall die. If he 



GEN. XLV. 481 

were to leave his father, his father would die. Such is the natural in- 
terpretation of these words, as the paternal affection is generally 
stronger than the filial. 33, 34. And now let thy servant now abide 
instead of the lad a servant to my lord. Such is the humble and ear- 
nest petition of Judah. He calmly and firmly sacrifices home, family, 
and birthright, rather than see an aged father die of a broken heart. 



LXXIII. JOSEPH MADE KNOWN TO HIS BRETHREN. — Gen. xlv. 

10. -,r.n Goshen (Tea-lp A/oa/5tas; r. perhaps dtt?a rain, shower), a 
region on the borders of Egypt and Arabia, near the gulf of Suez. 

XLV. 1. And Joseph could not refrain himself before all 
that stood by him, and he cried, Have every man out from me. 
And there stood no man with him, when Joseph made himself 
known unto his brethren. 2. And he lifted up his voice in 
weeping : and Mizraim heard, and the house of Pharoh heard. 
3. And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph ; is my 
father yet alive ? And his brethren could not answer him ; for 
they were troubled at his presence. 4. And Joseph said unto 
his brethren, Come near unto me. And they came near : and 
he said, I am Joseph, your brother, whom ye sold into Mizraim. 
5. And, now, be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that 
ye sold me hither ; because to save life God sent me before 
you. 6. For these two years hath the famine been in the land: 
and there are yet five years, in which there shall be neither 
earing nor reaping. 7. And God sent me before you, to leave 
to you a remnant in the land ; and to save you alive by a great 
deliverance. 8. And, now, not ye have sent me hither, but 
God : and he made me father to Pharoh, and lord to all his 
house, and ruler in all the land of Mizraim. 9. Haste ye, and 
go up to my father, and say unto him, Thus saith thy son Jo- 
seph, God hath made me lord of all Mizraim : come down 
unto me, stay not. 10. And thou shalt dwell in the land of 
61 



482 JOSEPH MADE KNOWN TO HIS BRETHREN. 

Goshen, and thou shalt be near me, thou, and thy sons, and 
thy sons' sons, and thy flock and thy heards, and all that thou 
hast. 11. And I will sustain thee there ; for yet five years is 
the famine ; lest thou come to poverty, thou, and thy house, 
and all that is thine. 12. And, behold, your eyes see, and the 
eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it is my mouth that speak- 
eth unto you. 13. And ye shall tell my father all my glory 
in Mizraim, and all that ye have seen : and ye shall haste and 
bring down my father hither. 14. And he fell upon Benjamin 
his brother's neck and wept ; and Benjamin wept upon his 
neck. 15. And he kissed all his brethren, and wept upon 
them : and after that his brethren talked with him. 

16. And the voice was heard in Pharoh's house, saying, Jo- 
seph's brethren are come. And it was good in the eyes of 
Pharoh, and in the eyes of his servants. 17. And Pharoli said 
unto Joseph, -Say unto thy brethren, This do ye : lade your 
beasts, and go, get you unto the land of Kenaan. 18. And 
take your father and your houses, and come unto me : and I 
will give you the good of the land of Mizraim, and eat ye the 
fat of the land. 19. And thou art commanded, this do ye: 
take you out of the land of Mizraim wagons for your little 
ones, and for your wives, and bring your father and come. 
20. And let not your eye care for your stuff: for the good of 
all the land of Mizraim is for you. 

21. And so did the sons of Israel ; and Joseph gave them 
wagons, at the mouth of Pharoh, and gave them provision for 
the way. 22. And to all of them he gave changes of raiment 
each ; and to Benjamin he gave three hundred silver pieces, 
and five changes of raiment. 23. And to his father he sent 
thus : ten asses laden with the good of Mizraim, and ten she- 
asses laden with corn and bread and food for his father by the 
way. 24. And he sent his brethren away, and they went ; and 
he said unto them, Do not fall out by the way. 

25. And they went up out of Mizraim, and came unto the 
land of Kenaan, unto Jacob their father. 26. And they told 



GEN. XLV. 483 

him, saying, Joseph is yet alive, and he is ruler over all the 
land of Mizraim. And his heart fainted, for he believed them 
not. 27. And they spake unto him all the words of Joseph, 
which he spake unto them : and he saw the wagons which Jo- 
seph had sent to carry him, and the spirit of Jacob their 
father revived. 28. And Israel said, Enough : Joseph my son 
is yet alive : let me go and see him, before I die. 

The appeal of Judah is to Joseph irresistible. The repentance of 
his brothers, and their attachment to Benjamin, have been demonstrated 
in the most satisfactory manner. This is all that Joseph sought. It is 
evident, throughout the whole narrative, that he never aimed at exer- 
cising any supremacy over his brothers. As soon as he has obtained 
an affecting proof of the right disposition of his brothers, he conceals 
himself no longer. And the speech of Judah, in which, no doubt, his 
brothers concurred, does equal credit to his head and heart. 

1-15. Joseph now reveals to his brothers the astonishing fact that he 
himself, their long-lost brother, stands before them. He could not re- 
frain himself. Judah has painted the scene at home to the life ; and 
Joseph can hold out no longer. Have every man out from me. Deli- 
cacy forbids the presence of strangers at this unrestrained outburst of 
tender emotion among the brothers. Besides, the workings of con- 
science, bringing up the recollections of the past, and the errors, to 
which some reference is now unavoidable, are not to be unveiled to the 
public eye. He lifted up his voice in weeping. The expression of the 
feelings is free and uncontrolled in a simple and primitive state of so- 
ciety. This prevails still in the East. And Mizraim heard. The 
Egyptians of Joseph's house would hear, and report to others, this unu- 
sual utterance of deep feeling. lam Joseph. The natural voice, the 
native tongue, the long-remembered features, would, all at once, strike 
the apprehension of the brothers. The remembrance of their crime, 
the absolute power of Joseph, and the justice of revenge, would rush 
upon their minds. No wonder they were silent and troubled at his 
presence. Is my father yet alive ? This question shows where Joseph's 
thoughts were. He had been repeatedly assured of his father's wel- 
fare. But the long absence and the yearning of a fond heart bring the 
question up again. It was reassuring to the brethren, as it was far 
away from any thought of their fault or their punishment. 4. Come 
near unto me. Joseph sees the trouble of his brothers, and discerns 



484 JOSEPH MADE KNOWN TO HIS BRETHREN. 

its cause. He addresses them a second time, and plainly refers to the 
fact of their having sold him. He points out that this was overruled 
of God to the saving of life ; and hence, that it was not they, but God 
who had mercifully sent him to Egypt to preserve all their lives. For 
these two years. Hence we perceive that the sons of Jacob obtained a 
supply, on the first occasion, which was sufficient for a year. To leave 
to you a remnant in the land. This is usually and most naturally re- 
ferred to a surviving portion of their race. Father to Pharoh ; a sec- 
ond author of life to him. Having touched very slightly on their 
transgression, and endeavored to divert their thoughts to the wonderful 
providence of God displayed in the whole affair, he lastly preoccupies 
their minds with the duty and necessity of bringing down their father 
and all their families to dwell in Egypt. In the land of Goshen. This 
was a pasture land on the borders of Egypt and Arabia, perhaps at 
some distance from the Nile, and watered by the showers of heaven, 
like their own valleys. He then appeals to their recollections and 
senses, whether he was not their very brother Joseph. My mouth that 
speaketh unto you ; not by an interpreter, but with his own lips, and in 
their native tongue. Having made this needful and reassuring expla- 
nation, he breaks through all distance, and falls upon Benjamin's neck 
and kisses him, and all his other brothers ; after which their hearts are 
soothed, and they speak freely with him. 

16-20. The intelligence that Joseph's brethren are come reaches the 
ears of Pharoh, and calls forth a cordial invitation to come and settle 
in Egypt. It was good in the eyes of Pharoh. They highly esteemed 
Joseph on his own account ; and that he should prove to be a member 
of a respectable family, and have the pleasure of again meeting with 
his nearest relatives, were circumstances that afforded them a real 
gratification. The good of the land of Mizraim. The good which it 
produces. Wagons ; two-wheeled cars, fit for driving over the rough 
country, where roads were not formed. Let not your eye care for your 
stuff; your houses, or pieces of furniture which must be left behind. 
The family of Jacob thus come to Egypt, not by conquest or purchase, 
but by hospitable invitation, as free, independent visitors or settlers. 
As they were free to come or not, so were they free to stay or leave. 

21-24. The brothers joyfully accept the hospitable invitation of 
Pharoh, and set about the necessary arrangements for their journey. 
The sons of Israel ; including Joseph, who had his own part to per- 
form in the proposed arrangement. At the mouth of Pharoh ; as he had 
authorized him to do. Changes of raiment ; fine raiment for change 



GEN. XL VI. 485 

on a high or happy day. To Benjamin he gives special marks of fra- 
ternal affection, which no longer excite any jealous feeling among the 
brothers, as the reasonableness of them is obvious. Fall out. The 
original word means to be stirred by any passion, whether fear or 
anger, and interpreters explain it as they conceive the circumstances 
and the context require. The English version corresponds with the 
Sept. (opyt£eor#e) and with Onkelos. It refers, perhaps, to the little 
flashes of heat, impatience, and contention that are wont to disturb the 
harmony of companions in the East, who behave sometimes like over- 
grown children. Such ebullitions often lead to disastrous consequences. 
Joseph's exile arose from petty jealousies among brethren. 

25-28. The returning brothers inform their father of the existence 
and elevation of Joseph in Egypt. The aged patriarch is overcome 
for the moment, but at length awakens to a full apprehension of the 
joyful news. His heart fainted ; ceased to beat for a time, fluttered, 
sank within him. The news was too good for him to venture all at 
once to believe it. But the words of Joseph, which they recite, and 
the wagons which he had sent, at length lead to the conviction that 
it must be indeed true. He is satisfied. His only thought is to go and 
see Joseph before he dies. A sorrow of twenty-two years' standing has 
now been wiped away. 



LXXIV. JACOB GOES DOWN TO EGYPT. — Gen. xlvi. 

• 
9. K&B Pallu, distinguished. *p2n Chetsron, of the court, or vil- 
lage. ^EH? Karmi, vine-dresser. 

10. btfWj Jemuel, day of El. "p^ Jamin, right hand. ihfc Ohad, 
joining together, yog Jakin, he shall establish, in's Tsochar, white- 
ness. 

11. fMha Gereshon, expelling, nrpp Qehath, assembly, 'ma Me- 
rari, flowing, bitter. 

12. b^Eh Chamul, pitied, treated with mercy. 

13. 3>Vta Tola', worm, scarlet. FrtS Puvvah, mouth? a*fa Job, 
enemy ? 'pi?® Shimron, watch. 

14. TiO Sered, fear, •}■&« Elon, oak. btibt)* Jachleel, El shall 
sicken or inspire with hope. 

16. -ji^aa Tsiphjon, watcher. i&n Chaggi, festive, ^fci Shuni, 



486 JACOB GOES DOWN TO EGYPT. 

quiet IfaSM Etsbon, toiling? 1*15 'Eri, watcher. **hl* Arodi, ?'0- 
ver? -bx*\X Areli, lion of ffl? 

17. map"" Jimnah, prosperity. WS3« Jishvah, *W Jishvi, evera, fetW. 
fisi-ia Beriah, ira ewi7. rnb Serach, overflow. *ian Cheber,/e//oi0- 
sA?)?. isf^o Malkiel, Krc# q/" i£/. 

21. 3&a Bela\ devouring, *iaa Beker, a young camel. Vairx Ash- 
bel, s^ort ? SOS Gerah, a grain, "jasi Na'aman, pleasant. ^nK Echi, 
brotherly ? 8J&n Rosh, Aeacf. d^Btt Muppim, DiBH Chuppim, covering. 
Wi!* Ard, fugitive, rover. 

23. n^dn Cbushim, Aaste. 

24. bsjsrn Jacbtseel, .£7 «*# divide. *MS Guni, d^ec?. 12£ Jetser, 
form. t&BD Shillem, retribution. 



XLYI. 1. And Israel set out with all that he had, and 
went to Beer-sheba, and offered sacrifices unto the God of his 
father Isaac. 2. And God said to Israel in the visions of the 
night, and he said, Jacob, Jacob ! And he said, Here am I. 

8. And he said, I am God, the God of thy father : fear not to 
go down to Mizraim ; for a great nation will I make thee there. 
4. I will go down with thee to Mizraim, and I will also surely 
bring thee up : and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes. 

5. And Jacob rose up from Beer-sheba : and the sons of Is- 
rael carried Jacob their father, and their little ones, and their 
wives, in the wagons which Pharoh had sent to carry him. 6. 
And they took their cattle, and their goods, which they had 
gained in the land of Kenaan, and went into Mizraim, Jacob, 
and all his seed with him ; 7. His sons, and his sons' sons 
with him, his daughters, and his sons' daughters, and all his 
seed brought he with him into Mizraim. § 42. 

8. And these are the names of the sons of Israel, who went 
into Mizraim, Jacob and his sons: Jacob's first-born, Reuben. 

9. And the sons of Reuben : Henok and Pallu and Hezron 
and Karmi. 10. And the sons of Simon : Jemuel and Jamin 
and Oh ad and Jakin and Zohar, and Saul son of a Kenaanit- 
ess. 11. And the sons of Levi : Gershon, Kohath and Mera- 
ri. 12. And the sons of Judah : Er and Onan and Shelah and 



GEN. XL VI. 487 

Perez and Zerali ; and Er and Onan died in the land of Ke- 
naan ; and the sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul. 13. 
And the sons of Issakar : Tola and Puah and Job and Shim- 
ron. 14. And the sons of Zebulun : Sered and Elon and Jah- 
leel. 15. These are the sons of Leah, whom she bare to Jacob 
in Padan-aram, and Dinah his daughter : all the souls, his sons 
and his daughters, were thirty and three. 16. And the sons 
of Gad : Ziphion and Haggi, Shuni and Ezbon, Eri and Arodi 
and Areli. 17. And the sons of Asher : Jhnnah and Jishvah 
and Jishvi and Beriah, and Serah their sister ; and the sons of 
Beriah, Heber and Malkiel. 18. These are the sons of Zilpah, 
whom Laban gave to Leah his daughter ; and she bare them to 
Jacob, sixteen souls. 19. The sons of Rachel, Jacob's wife : 
Joseph and Benjamin. 20. And born to Joseph in the land 
of Mizraim were those whom Asenath, daughter of Potiphera, 
priest of On, bare unto him, Menasseh and Ephraim. 21. And 
the sons of Benjamin : Bela and Beker and Ashbel, Gera and 
Naaman, Ehi and Rosh, Muppim and Huppim and Ard. 22. 
These are the sons of Rachel, who were born to Jacob : all the 
souls were fourteen. 23. And the sons of Dan : Hushim. 24. 
And the sons of Naphtali : Jahzeel and Guni and Jezer and 
Shillem. 25. These are the sons of Bilhah, whom Laban gave 
to Rachel his daughter : and she bare these to Jacob ; all the 
souls were seven. 26. All the souls that went with Jacob into 
Mizraim, who came out of his loins, besides the wives of Ja- 
cob's sons ; all the souls were sixty and six. 27. And the sons 
of Joseph, that were born to him in Mizraim, were two souls. 
All the souls of the house of Jacob which went into Mizraim 
were seventy. § 43. 

28. And Judah he sent before him to Joseph, to lead the 
way before him to Goshen ; and they went into the land of 
Goshen. 29. And Joseph yoked his chariot, and went up to 
meet Israel his father to Goshen ; and he appeared to him, and 
fell on his neck, and wept long on his neck. 80. And Israel 
said unto Joseph, Let me die now, after I have seen thy face, 



488 JACOB GOES DOWN TO EGYPT, 

that thou art yet alive. 31. And Joseph said unto his breth- 
ren, and unto his father's house, I will go up and tell Pha- 
roh ; and I will say unto him, My brethren, and my father's 
house, that were in the land of Kenaan, are come unto me. 
32. And the men are shepherds, for men of cattle have they 
been ; and their flocks, and their herds, and all that they have, 
they have brought. 33. And it shall come to pass that Pha- 
roh shall call you ; and he shall say, What is your occupa- 
tion ? 34. And ye shall say, Men of cattle have thy servants 
been from our youth even until now, both we and our 
fathers : that ye may dwell in the land of Goshen ; for every 
shepherd is the abomination of Mizraim. 

The second dream of Joseph is now to receive its fulfilment. His fa- 
ther is to bow down before him. His mother is dead. It is probable that 
also Leah is deceased. The figure, by which the dream shadows forth 
the reality, is fulfilled, when the spirit of it receives its accomplishment. 

1-4. Jacob arriving at Beer-sheba is encouraged by a revelation 
from God. Beer-sheba may be regarded as the fourth scene of Abra- 
ham's abode in the land of promise. Offered sacrifices. He had 
gathered from the words of the Lord to Abraham (xv. 13), and the 
way in which the dreams of Joseph were realized in the events of 
Providence, that his family were to descend into Egypt. He felt 
therefore that in taking this step he was obeying the will of Heaven. 
Hence he approaches God in sacrifices at an old abode of Abraham 
and Isaac, before he crosses the border to pass into Egypt. On this 
solemn occasion God appears to him in the visions of the night. He 
designates himself El the Mighty, and the God of his father. The 
former name cheers him with the thought of an all-sufficient Protector. 
The latter identifies the speaker with the God of his father, and there- 
fore with the God of eternity, of creation, and of covenant. Fear not 
to go down into Mizraim. This implies both that it was the will of 
God that he should go down to Egypt, and that he would be protected 
there. A great nation. Jacob had now a numerous family, of whom 
no longer one was selected, but all were included in the chosen seed. 
He had received the special blessing and injunction to be fruitful and 
multiply (xxviii. 3, xxxv. 11). The chosen family is to be the begin- 
ning of the chosen nation. / will go down with thee. The I is here 



GEX. XLVL 489 

emphatic, as it is also in the assurance that he will bring him up in the 
falness of time from Egypt. If Israel in the process of growth from 
a family to a nation had remained among the Kenaanites, he would 
have been amalgamated with the nation by intermarriage, and con- 
formed to its vices. By his removal to Egypt he is kept apart from 
the demoralizing influence of a nation, whose iniquity became so great 
as to demand a judicial extirpation (xv. 16). He is also kept from 
sinking into an Egyptian by the fact that a shepherd, as he was, is an 
abomination to Egypt ; by his location in the comparatively high land 
of Goshen, which is a border land, not naturally, but only politically, 
belonging to Egypt ; and by the reduction of his race to a body of 
serfs, with whom that nation would not condescend to intermingle. Jo- 
seph shall put his hand upon thine eyes. His long-lost son shall be 
present to perform the last offices to him when deceased. 

5—7. The descent into Egypt is now described. His daughters, and 
his sons' daughters. In the following list only one daughter of Jacob 
is mentioned, Dinah, and only one son's daughter, Serah. It is possible, 
but not probable, that there were more daughters than these at the 
time in his family. But even if there were no others, the plural is 
adopted in order to correspond with the general form of classification, 
from which the one daughter and the one granddaughter are merely 
accidental deviations. The same principle applies to the sons of Dan 
(v. 23), and to other instances in Scripture (1 Chron. ii. 8, 42). 

8—27. The list here given of the family of Jacob as it came down 
into Egypt is not to be identified with a list of their descendants two 
hundred and fifty years after, contained in Num. xxvi., or with another 
list constructed after the captivity, and referring to certain of their 
descendants in and after the times of the monarchy. Nor is this the 
place to mark out or investigate the grounds of the diversities from the 
present which these later lists exhibit. Our proper business here is to 
examine into the nature and import of this ancient and original list 
of the family of Jacob. It purports to be a list of the names of the 
sons of Israel, who went into Mizraim. This phrase implies that the 
cons of Israel actually went down into Egypt ; and this is accordingly 
historically true of all his immediate sons, Joseph having gone thither 
about twenty-two years before the others. And the word " sons " is to 
be understood here in its strict sense, as we find it in the immediate con- 
text (v. 7) distinguished from sons' sons and other descendants. Jacob 
and his sons. From this expression we perceive the progenitor is to 
be included with the sons among those who descended to Egypt. This 
62 



490 JACOB GOES DOWN TO EGYPT. 

also is historically exact. For the sake of clearness it is proper here 
to state the approximate ages of these heads of Israel at the time of the 
descent. Jacob himself was 130 years of age (xlvii. 9). Joseph was 
in his thirtieth year when he stood before Pharoh to interpret his 
dreams and receive his commission as governor-general of Egypt, 
(xli. 46). At the end of the second year of the famine nine full years 
were added to his life. He was therefore, we may suppose, 39 years 
old when Jacob arrived in Egypt, and born when his father was 91. 
As we conceive that he was born in the fifteenth year of Jacob's so- 
journ in Padan-aram, and Reuben in the eighth, we infer that Reuben 
was at the time of the descent into Egypt* seven years older than Jo- 
seph, or 46, Simon 45, Levi 44, Judah 43, Dan about 43, Naphtali 
about 42, Gad about 42, Asher about 41, Issakar about 41, Zebulun 
about 40, Dinah about 39, Benjamin about 26. Jacob's jirst-bom 
Reuben. This refers to the order of nature, without implying that the 
rights of first-birth were to be secured^ to Reuben (1 Chron. v. 1, 2). 
9-15. The sons of Leah and their descendants are here enu- 
merated. Reuben has four sons, who appear without variation in the 
other two lists (Num. xxvi. 5, 6; 1 Chron. v. 3). Of the six sons of 
Simon, Ohad appears in the other lists, and Nemuel and Zerah appear 
as colloquial variations of Jemuel and Zohar. Such diversities in oral 
language are usual to this day in the East and elsewhere. Son of a 
Kenaanitess. This implies that intermarriage with the Kenaanites 
was the exception to the rule in the family of Jacob. Wives might 
have been obtained from Hebrew, Aramaic, or at all events Shemite 
tribes who were living in their vicinity. The three sons of Levi are 
common to all the lists, with the slight variation of Gershom for Ger- 
shon. The sons of Judah are also unvaried. We are here reminded 
that Er and Onon died in the land of Kenaan (v. 38), and of course 
did not come down into Egypt. The extraordinary circumstances of 
Judah's family are recorded in ch. xxxviii. In order that Hezron 
and Hamul may have been born at the arrival of Jacob's household in 
Egypt, Judah's and Perez's first sons must have been born in the four- 
teenth year of their respective fathers. For the discussion of this 
matter see the remarks on that chapter. The four sons of Issakar 
occur in the other lists, with the variation of Jashub for Job. The 
three sons of Zebulun recur in the book of Numbers ; but in the list 
of Chronicles no mention is made of his posterity. Dinah does not 
appear in the other lists. The descendants of Leah are in all thirty- 
two ; six sons, one daughter, twenty-three grandsons, and two great- 



GEN. XL VI. 491 

grandsons. All the souls, his sons and his daughters, were thirty and 
three. Here " all the souls " include Jacob himself, and " his sons and 
Ins daughters " are to be understood as a specification of what is in- 
cluded besides himself. 

16-18. Next are enumerated the sons of Zilpah, Leah's hand- 
maid. The seven sons of Gad recur in Num. xxvi., with the variants 
Zephon, Ozni, and Arod, for Ziphion, Ezbon, and Arodi; but they do 
not occur in Chronicles. Of Asher's five children, Jishuah is omitted 
in Numbers, but appears in Chronicles. This seems to arise from the 
circumstances that the list in Numbers was drawn up at the time of 
the facts recorded, and that in Chronicles is extracted partly from 
Genesis. The other names are really the same in all the lists. The 
descendants of Zilpah are sixteen, — two sons, eleven grandsons, one 
granddaughter, and two great-grandsons. 

19-22. The sons of Rachel. It is remarkable that she alone is 
called the wife of Jacob, because she was the wife of his choice. Yet 
the children of the beloved, we perceive, are not placed before those 
of the less loved (Deut. xxi. 15, 16). Joseph's two sons are the same 
in all lists. Of the ten sons of Benjamin only five appear in Num- 
bers (xxvi. 38-41), Bela and Ashbel being the same, and Ahiram, 
Shupham, and Hupham, being variants of Ehi, Muppim, and Huppim. 
In two hundred and fifty years the other five have become extinct. 
Naaman and Ard seem to have died early, as two sons of Bela, 
named after them, take their places as heads of families or clans. In 
Chronicles (vii. 6-12) we have two lists of his descendants which do 
not seem to be primary, as they do not agree with either of the former 
lists, or with one another, though some of the names recur. The 
descendants of Rachel are fourteen, — two sons and twelve grand- 
sons. 

23-25. The sons of Bilhah, Rachel's handmaid, come last. Hushim, 
the son of Dan, appears in Numbers (xxvi. 42) as Shuham, and per- 
haps in Chronicles (vii. 12) in an obscure connection. The four sons 
of Naphtali occur in all the lists, Shallum being the variant in Chron- 
icles (vii. 13) for Shillem. The descendants of Bilhah are seven, — 
.two sons and five grandsons. 

26, 27. All the souls that went with Jacob into Egypt, that came 
out of his loins, were eleven sons, one daughter, fifty grandchildren, 
and four great-grandsons ; in all, sixty-six. Jacob, Joseph and his 
two sons, are four ; and thus all the souls belonging to the family of 
Jacob which went into Egypt were seventy. This account, with its 



492 JACOB GOES DOWN TO EGYPT. 

somewhat intricate details, is expressed with remarkable brevity and 
simplicity. 

The Septuagint gives seventy-five as the sum-total, which is made 
out by inserting Makir the son, and Gilead the grandson of Menasseh, 
Shuthelah and Tahan, sons, and Edom or Eran, a grandson of Ephraim 
(Num. xxvi.). This version has also the incorrect statement that the 
sons of Joseph born to him in Egypt were nine ; whereas by its own 
showing they were seven, and Jacob and Joseph are to be added to 
make up the nine. Some suppose that Stephen's statement — a-rocr- 
re/Xas 8e Iwa7)<f> juereKaAeo-aro rbv Traripa avrov Ia/cco/5 /cat iraaav rrjv 
(Tvyyevetav iv xj/v^als iJSSojjLyJKovTa ttIvtc — is founded on this version. If 
Stephen here quoted the Septuagint as a well-known version, he was 
accountable only for the correctness of his quotation, and not for the 
error which had crept into his authority. This was immaterial to his 
present purpose, and it was not the manner of the sacred speakers to 
turn aside from their grand task to the pedantry of criticism. But it 
is much more likely that the text of the Septuagint has here been con- 
formed in a bungling way to the number given by Stephen. For it is 
to be observed that his number refers, according to the text, to Jacob 
and all his kindred, exclusive of Joseph and Ms sons. They could not 
therefore amount to seventy-five, but only to sixty-seven, if we count 
merely Jacob and his proper descendants. It is probable, therefore, 
that in the idea of Stephen the "kindred " of Jacob included the eight 
or nine surviving wives that accompanied the children of Israel. Ju- 
dah's wife was dead, and it is probable that Reuben's was also de- 
ceased before he committed incest with Bilhah. If there were two or 
three more widowers the number of surviving wives would be eight or 
nine. 

The number of the children of Israel is very particularly noted. 
But the Scripture lays no stress upon the number itself, and makes no 
particular application of it. It stands forth, therefore, on the record 
merely as a historical fact. It is remarkable that it is the product of 
seven, the number of holiness ; and ten, the number of completeness. 
It is still more remarkable that it is the number of the names of those 
who are the heads of the primitive nations. This is in accordance 
with the fact that the church is the counterpart of the world, not only 
in diversity of character and destiny, but also in the adaptation of the 
former to work out the restitution of all things to God in the latter. 
The covenant with Abraham is a special means by which the seed 
may come, who is to give legal and vital effect to the old and general 



GEN. XLVI. 493 

covenant with Noah the representative of the nations. The church of 
God in the world is to be the instrument by which the kingdom of the 
world is to become the kingdom of Christ. " When the Most High 
bestowed the inheritance on the nations, when he separated the sons 
of Adam, he set the bounds of the peoples according to the number of 
the sons of Israel" (Deut. xxxii. 8). This curious sentence may 
have an immediate reference to the providential distribution of the 
human family over the habitable parts of the earth, according to the 
number of his church, and of his dispensation of grace ; but at all 
events it conveys the great and obvious principle that all things what- 
soever in the affairs of men are antecedently adapted with the most 
perfect exactitude to the benign reign of grace already realized in the 
children of God, and yet to be extended to all the sons and daughters 
of Adam. 

28-34. The settlement in Goshen is now narrated. Jadah he sent 
before him. We have already seen why the three older sons of Jacob 
were disqualified for taking the lead in important matters relating to 
the family. To lead the way before him into Goshen, — to get the requi- 
site directions from Joseph, and then conduct the immigrants to their 
destined resting-place. And went up. Egypt was the valley of the Nile, 
and therefore a low country. Goshen was comparatively high, and 
therefore at some distance from the Nile and the sea. Arid he ap- 
peared unto him. A phrase usually applied to the appearance of God 
to men, and intended to intimate the unexpectedness of the sight, 
which now came before the eyes of Jacob. 31. JT will go up. In a 
courtly sense, to approach the residence of the sovereign is to go up. 
Joseph intends to make the " occupation " of his kindred a prominent 
part of his communication to Pharoh, in order to secure their settle- 
ment in Goshen. This he considers desirable, on two grounds : first, 
because Goshen was best fitted for pasture ; and secondly, because the 
chosen family would thus be comparatively isolated from Egyptian 
society. The two nations were in some important respects mutually 
repulsive. The idolatrous and superstitious customs of the Egyptians 
were abhorrent to a worshipper of the true God ; and " every shep- 
herd was the abomination of Egypt." The expression here employed 
is very strong, and rises even to a religious aversion. Herodotus 
makes the cowherds the third of the seven classes into which the 
Egyptians were divided (Her. ii. 1G4). Others include them in the 
lowest class of the community. This, however, is not sufficient to 
account for the national antipathy. About seventeen or eighteen 



494 JACOB IN GOSHEN. 

centuries before the Christian era it is probable that the Hyksos, or 
shepherd kings, were masters of the southern part of the country, 
while a native dynasty still prevailed in lower Egypt. The religion 
of these shepherd intruders was different from that of the Egyptians, 
which they treated with disrespect. They were addicted to the 
barbarities which are usually incident to a foreign rule. It is not 
surprising, therefore, that the shepherd became the abomination of 
Egypt. 



LXXV. JACOB IN GOSHEN.— Gen. xlvii. 

1 1 . &&£2t! Ra'meses, son of the sati. 
31. ftajo bed. jibe 



XLVII. 1. And Joseph went and told Pharoli : and he 
said, My father and my brethren, and their flocks and their 
herds, and all that they have, arc come out of the land of 
Kenaan : and, behold, they are in the land of Goshen. 2. 
And of the whole of his brethren he took five men, and set 
them before Pharoh. 3. And Pharoh said unto his brethren, 
What is your occupation ? And they said unto Pharoh, 
Shepherds are thy servants, both we and our fathers. 4. And 
they said unto Pharoh, To sojourn in the land are we come ; 
for there is no pasture for the flock of thy servants ; for sore 
is the famine in the land of Kenaan : and therefore let thy 
servants now dwell in the land of Goshen. 5. And Pharoli 
said unto Joseph, saying, Thy father and thy brethren are 
come unto thee. 6. The land of Mizraim is before thee ; in 
the best of the land settle thy father and thy brethren : let 
them dwell in the land of Goshen ; and if thou knowest and 
there be among them men of ability, then make them masters 
of my cattle. 7. And Joseph brought Jacob his father, and 
set him before Pharoh : and Jacob blessed Pharoh. 8. And 
Pharoh said unto Jacob, What are the days of the years of 
thy life ? 9. And Jacob said unto Pharoh, The days of the 



GEN. XL VII. 495 

years of my pilgrimage are thirty and a hundred years : few 
and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they 
have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my 
fathers in the days of their pilgrimage. 10. And Jacob blessed 
Pharoh, and came out from before Pharoh. 11. And Joseph 
settled his father and his brethren ; and gave them a posses- 
sion in the land of Mizraim, in the best of the land, in the 
land of Rameses ; as Pharoh had commanded. 12. And 
Joseph sustained his father, and his brethren, and all his 
father's house with bread, according to the little ones. 

13. And there was no bread in all the land ; for the famine 
was very sore ; and the land of Mizraim and the land of 
Kenaan fainted by reason of the famine. 14. And Joseph 
gathered up all the silver that was found in the land of Miz- 
raim and in the land of Kenaan, for the grain which they 
bought : and Joseph brought the silver into Pharoh' s house. 
15. And the silver was spent from the land of Mizraim, and 
from the land of Kenaan ; and all Mizraim went to Joseph, 
saying, Give us bread, for why should we die in thy presence ? 
for silver faileth. 16. And Joseph said, Give your cattle ; 
and I will give you for your cattle, if silver fail. 17. And 
they brought their cattle unto Joseph : and Joseph gave them 
bread, for the horses and for the cattle of sheep, and for the 
cattle of oxen, and for the asses : and he provided them with 
bread for all their cattle that year. 18. And that year was 
ended ; and they went to him the second year, and said unto 
him, We will not hide from my lord that the silver is spent, 
and the cattle of beasts belong to my lord : there is naught 
left before my lord but our bodies and our soil. 19. Where- 
fore shall we die before thine eyes, both we and our soil ? 
Buy us and our soil for bread : and we and our soil will be 
servants unto Pharoh ; and give seed, and we shall live and 
not die, and the soil shall not be waste. 20. And Joseph 
bought all the soil of Mizraim for Pharoh ; for Mizraim sold 
eveiy man his field, because the famine had laid hold on 



496 



JACOB IN GOSHEN. 



thorn : and the land became Pharoh's. 21. And the people 
he removed into the cities, from one end of the border of 
Mizraim unto the other end thereof. 22. Only the soil of the 
priests bought he not : for the priests had a stated rate from 
Pharoh ; wherefore they sold not their soil. 28. And Joseph 
said unto the people, Behold, I have bought you this day and 
your soil for Pharoh : here is seed for you, and ye shall sow 
the soil. 24. And it shall come to pass in the increase, that 
ye shall give the fifth to Pharoh : and four parts shall be your 
own, for seed of the field, and for your food, and for those in 
your houses, and for your little ones to eat. 25. And they 
said, Thou hast kept us alive : let us find grace in the eyes of 
my lord, and we will be servants to Pharoh. 26. And Joseph 
made it a statute unto this day over the soil of Mizraim, that 
Pharoh should have the fifth : but the soil of the priests alone 
became not Pharoh's. 

27. And Israel dwelt in the land of Mizraim, in the land 
of Goshen : and they were possessed thereof, and grew and 
multiplied exceedingly. 12 

28. And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years : 
and the days of Jacob, the years of his life, were seven and 
forty and a hundred years. 29. And the days of Israel drew 
nigh to his death ; and he called his son Joseph, and said 
unto him, If now I have found grace in thine eyes, put now 
thy hand under my thigh : and do with me kindness and 
truth; bury me not now in Mizraim. 30. And I will lie 
with my fathers, and thou shalt carry me out of Mizraim, and 
bury me in their burying-place. And he said, I will do ac- 
cording to thy word. 31. And he said, Swear unto me. 
And he sware unto him: and Israel bowed himself on the 
head of the bed. 1 37 



Arrangements are now made for the settlement of Israel in Goshen. 
The administration of Joseph during the remaining years of the fam- 
ine is then recorded. For the whole of this period his father and 



GEN. XL VII. 497 

brothers are subject to him, as their political superior, according to the 
reading of his early dreams. We then approach to the death-bed of 
Jacob, and hear him binding Joseph by an oath to bury him in the 
sepulchre of his fathers. 

1-12. Joseph announces to Pharoh the arrival of his kindred. Of 
the whole of his brethren, more exactly from the end of his brethren. 
Five men, a favorite number in Egypt. Shepherds, owners and feeders 
of sheep and other cattle. 5, 6. Pasture. Hence it appears that the 
drought had made the grazing extremely scanty. Men of ability, 
competent to take the oversight of others. 7—10. Jacob his father, he 
presents before Pharoh, after he has disposed of all business matters. 
Jacob blessed Pharoh. This is the patriarch's grateful return for 
Pharoh's great kindness and generosity towards him and his house. 
He is conscious of even a higher dignity than that of Pharoh, as he is 
a prince of God; and as such he bestows his precious benediction. 
Pharoh was struck with his venerable appearance, and inquired what 
was his age. Pilgrimage, — sojourning, wandering without any constant 
abode or fixed holding. Such was the life of the patriarchs in the land 
of promise (Heb. xi. 13). Few and evil. Jacob's years at this time 
were far short of those of Abraham and Isaac, not to speak of more 
ancient men. Much bitterness also had been mingled in his cup from 
the time that he beguiled his brother of the birthright and the blessing, 
which would have come to him in a lawful way if he had only waited 
in patience. Obliged to flee for his life from his father's house, 
serving seven years for a beloved wife, and balked in his expected 
recompense by a deceitful father-in-law, serving seven long years more 
for the object of his affections, having his wages changed ten times 
during the six years of his further toil for a maintenance, afflicted by 
the dishonor of his only daughter, the reckless revenge taken by Simon 
and Levi, the death of his beloved wife in childbed, the disgraceful 
incest of Reuben, the loss of Joseph himself for twenty -two years, and 
the present famine with all its anxieties — Jacob, it must be confessed, 
has become acquainted with no small share of the ills of life. Blessed 
Pharoh. It is possible that this blessing is the same as that already 
mentioned, now reiterated in its proper place in the narrative. 12. 
According to the little ones. This means either in proportion to the 
number in each household, or with all the tenderness with which a 
parent provides for his infant offspring. 

13—26. Joseph introduces remarkable changes into the relation of 
the sovereign and the people of Egypt. There was no bread in all the 
63 



498 JACOB IN GOSHEN. 

land. The private stores of the wealthy were probably exhausted. 
And Joseph gathered up all the silver. The old stores of grain and the 
money, which had flowed into the country during the years of plenty, 
seem to have lasted for five years. And Joseph brought the silver into 
Pharoh' s house. He was merely the steward of Pharoh in this matter, 
and made a full return of all the payments that came into his hands. 
15-17. The silver was spent. The famishing people have no more 
money ; but they must have bread. Joseph is fertile in expedients. 
He proposes to take their cattle. This was really a relief to the peo- 
ple, as they had no means of providing them with fodder. The value 
of commodities is wholly altered by a change of circumstances. Pearls 
will not purchase a cup of water in a vast and dreary wilderness. 
Cattle become worthless when food becomes scarce, and the means of 
procuring it are exhausted. For their cattle Joseph supplies them 
with food during the sixth year. 

18-20. The seventh year is now come. The silver and cattle are 
now gone. Nothing remains but their lands, and with these themselves 
as the serfs of the soil. Accordingly they make this offer to Joseph, 
which he cannot refuse. Hence it is evident that Pharoh had as yet 
no legal claim to the soil. In primeval times the first entrants into an 
unoccupied country became, by a natural custom, the owners of the 
grounds they held and cultivated. The mere nomad, who roamed over 
a wide range of country, where his flocks merely cropped the sponta- 
neous herbage, did not soon arrive at the notion of private property in 
land. But the husbandman, who settled on a promising spot, broke 
up the soil, and sowed the seed, felt he had acquired by his labor a 
title to the acres he had cultivated and permanently occupied, and this 
right was instinctively acknowledged by others. Hence each cultiva- 
tor grew into the absolute owner of his own farm. Hence the lands 
of Egypt belonged to the peasantry of the country, and were at their 
disposal. These lands had now become valueless to those who had 
neither provisions for themselves nor seed for their ground. They 
willingly part with them, therefore, for a year's provision and a supply 
of seed. In this way the lands of Egypt fell into the hands of the 
crown by a free purchase. 21, 22. And the people he removed into 
the cities. This is not an act of arbitrary caprice, but a wise and kind 
measure for the more convenient nourishment of the people until the 
new arrangements for the cultivation of the soil should be completed. 
The priestly class were sustained by a state allowance, and therefore 
were not obliged to alienate their lands. Hence they became by this 



GEN. XLYn. 499 

social revolution a privileged order. The military class were also ex- 
empted most probably from the surrender of their patrimonial rights, 
as they were maintained on the crown lands. 

23-26. I have bought you. He had bought their lands, and so they 
might be regarded, in some sort, as the servants of Pharoh, or the 
serfs of the soil. In the increase ye shall give the fifth, to Pharoh. 
This explains at once the extent of their liability, and the security of 
their liberty and property. They do not become Pharoh's bondmen. 
They own their land under him by a new tenure. They are no longer 
subject to arbitrary exactions. They have a stated annual rent, bear- 
ing a fixed ratio to the amount of their crop. This is an equitable 
adjustment of their dues, and places them under the protection of a 
statute law. The people are accordingly well pleased with the en- 
actment of Joseph, which becomes henceforth the law of Egypt. 

27-31. And they were possessed thereof. They become owners or 
tenants of the soil in Goshen. The Israelites were recognized as sub- 
jects with the full rights of freemen. They grew and multiplied exceed- 
ingly. They are now placed in a definite territory, where they are free 
from the contamination which arises from promiscuous intermarriage 
with an idolatrous race ; and hence the Lord bestows the blessing of 
fruitfulness and multiplication, so that in a generation or two more they 
can intermarry among themselves. It is a remarkable circumstance 
that until now we read of only two daughters in the family of Jacob. 
The brothers could not marry their sisters, and it was not desirable 
that the females should form affinity with the heathen, as they had in 
general to follow the faith of their husbands. Here the twelfth sec- 
tion of the Pentateuch terminates. 

28-31. Jacob lives seventeen years in Egypt, and so survives the 
famine twelve years. He called his son Joseph. Joseph retained his 
power and place near Pharoh after the fourteen years of special ser- 
vice were completed ; hence Jacob looks to him for the accomplish- 
ment of his wishes concerning the place of his burial. Put thy hand 
under my thigh (xxiv. 2). He binds Joseph by a solemn asseveration 
to carry his mortal remains to the land of promise. And Israel bowed 
himself on the head of the bed. On receiving the solemn promise of 
Joseph, he turns towards the head of the bed, and assumes the posture 
of adoration, rendering, no doubt, thanks to God for all the mercies of 
his past life, and for this closing token of filial duty and affection. 
The Septuagint has the rendering €7r! to aKpov Trjs pdJ38ov avrov, " on 
the top of his staff," which is given in the Epistle to the Hebrews 



500 JOSEPH VISITS HIS SICK FATHER. 

(xi. 21). This is obtained by a mere change in the vowel pointing 
of the last word. 



LXXVI. JOSEPH VISITS HIS SICK FATHEK.— Gen. xlviii. 

XLVIII. 1. And it came to pass after these things, that 
one said to Joseph, Behold, thy father is sick. And he took 
his two sons with him, Menasseh and Ephraim. 2. And one 
told Jacob, and said, Behold, thy son Joseph cometh unto 
thee : and Israel strengthened himself and sat upon the bed. 
3. And Jacob said unto Joseph, God Almighty appeared unto 
me at Luz in the land of Kenaan, and blessed me ; 4. And 
said unto me, Behold, I will make thee fruitful, and multiply 
thee, and make thee a multitude of people : and I will give 
this land to thy seed after thee as a perpetual possession. 5. 
And now thy two sons that were born to thee in the land of 
Mizraim are mine : Ephraim and Menasseh, as Eeuben and 
Simon, shall be mine. 6. And thy issue which thou begettest 
after them shall be thine ; after the name of their brethren 
shall they be called in their inheritance. 7. And as for me, 
in coming from Padan, Rachel died upon me in the land of 
Kenaan, by the way when there was a stretch of land to go to 
Ephrath : and I buried her there in the way to Ephrath, which 
is Bethlehem. 

8. And Israel beheld Joseph's sons, and said, Who are 
these ? 9. And Joseph said unto his father, They are my 
sons, whom God hath given me here. And he said, Bring 
them now unto me, and I will bless them. 10. And the eyes 
of Israel were dim from age ; he could not see : and he 
brought them near unto him ; and he kissed them, and em- 
braced them. 11. And Israel said unto Joseph, To see thy 
face I had not thought : and, lo, God hath showed me also 
thy seed. 12. And Joseph brought them out from between 



GEN. XL VIII. 501 

Lis knees, and bowed with his face to the earth. 13. And Jo- 
seph took the two, Ephraim in his right hand towards Israel's 
left, and Menasseh in his left toward Israel's right : and 
brought them near unto him. 14. And Israel stretched out 
his right hand, and laid it on Ephraim's head, who was the 
younger, and his left hand upon Menasseh's head : he guided 
his hands wittingly, for Menasseh was the first-born. 15. 
And he blessed Joseph, and said, The God before whom 
walked my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, the God who fed me 
from my being unto this day, 16. The Angel, that redeemed 
me from all evil, bless the lads ; and let my name be put upon 
them, and the name of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac : and 
let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the land. 

17. And Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon 
Ephraim's head, and it displeased him : and he held up his 
father's hand to remove it from Ephraim's head to Menasseh's 
head. 18. And Joseph said unto his father, Not so, my father: 
for this is the first-born ; put thy right hand upon his head. 
19. And his father refused, and said, I know, my son, I know : 
he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great : but 
truly his younger brother shall be greater than he ; and his 
seed shall be the fulness of the nations. 20. And he blessed 
them in that day, saying, In thee shall Israel bless, saying, 
God make thee as Ephraim and as Menasseh. And he set 
Ephraim before Menasseh. 21. And Israel said unto Joseph, 
Behold, I die ; and God will be with you and restore you to 
the land of your fathers. 22. And I have given thee one share 
above thy brethren, which I took out of the hand of the Amo- 
rite with my sword and with my bow. § 38. 

The right of primogeniture lias been forfeited by Reuben. The 
double portion in the inheritance is now transferred to Joseph. He is 
the first-born of her who was intended by Jacob to be his first and only 
wife. He has also been the means of saving all his father's house, 



502 JOSEPH VISITS HIS SICK FATHER. 

even after he had been sold into slavery by his brethren. He has 
therefore undeniable claims to this part of the first-born's rights. 

1-7. After these things. After the arrangements concerning the 
funeral, recorded in the chapter. Menasseh and Ephraim. They 
seem to have accompanied their father from respectful affection to 
their aged relative. Israel strengthened himself, — summoned his 
remaining powers for the interview, which was now to him an effort. 
God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz. From the terms of the 
blessing received it is evident that Jacob here refers to the last ap- 
pearance of God to him at Bethel (xxxv. 11). And now thy sons. 
After referring to the promise of a numerous offspring, and of a terri- 
tory which they are to inherit, he assigns to each of the two sons of 
Joseph, who were born in Egypt, a place among his own sons, and a 
separate share in the promised land. In this way two shares fall to 
Joseph. And thy issue. We are not informed whether Joseph had 
any other sons. But all such are to be reckoned in the two tribes of 
which Ephraim and Menasseh are the heads. These young men are 
now at least twenty and nineteen years of age, as they were born be- 
fore the famine commenced. Any subsequent issue that Joseph might 
have, would be counted among the generations of their children. 
Rachel died upon me, — as a heavy affliction falling upon me. The 
presence of Joseph naturally leads the father's thoughts to Rachel, the 
beloved mother of his beloved son, whose memory he honors in giving 
a double portion to her eldest son. 

8-1 6. He now observes and proceeds to bless the two sons of Jo- 
seph. Who are these ? The sight and the observant faculties of the 
patriarch were now failing. Bring them now unto me, and Twill bless 
them. Jacob is seated on the couch, and the young men approach 
him. He kisses and folds his arms around them. The comforts of 
his old age come up before his mind. He had not expected to see 
Joseph again in the flesh, and now God had showed him his seed. 
After these expressions of parental fondness, Joseph drew them back 
from between his knees, that he might present them in the way that 
was distinctive of their age. He then bowed with his face to the 
earth, in reverential acknowledgment of the act of worship about to 
be performed. Joseph expected the blessing to be regulated by the 
age of his sons, and is therefore careful to present them so that the 
right hand of his dim-sighted parent may, without any effort, rest on 
the head of his first-born. But the venerable patriarch, guided by the 
Spirit of him who doth according to his own will, designedly lays his 



GEN. XL VIII. 503 

right hand on the head of the younger, and thereby attributes to 
him the greater blessing. 

The imposition of the hand is a primitive custom which here for the 
first time comes into notice. It is the natural mode of marking out 
the object of the benediction, signifying its conveyance to the individ- 
ual, and implying that it is laid upon him as the destiny of his life. 
It may be done by either hand ; but when each is laid on a different 
object, as in the present case, it may denote that the higher blessing is 
convejed by the right hand. The laying on of both hands on one 
person may express the fulness of the blessing conveyed, or the ful- 
ness of the desire with which it is conveyed. 

15-1G. And he blessed Joseph. In blessing his seed he blesses him- 
self. In exalting his two sons into the rank and right of his brothers, 
he bestows upon them the double portion of the first-born. In the 
terms of the blessing Jacob first signalizes the threefold function which 
the Lord discharges in effecting the salvation of a sinner. The God 
before whom walked my fathers, is the Author of salvation, the Judge 
who dispenses justice and mercy, the Father, before whom the adopted 
and regenerate child walks. From him salvation comes, to him the 
saved returns, to walk before him and be perfect. The God, who fed 
me from my being unto this day, is the Creator and Upholder of life, 
the Quickener and Sanctifier, the potential Agent, who works both to 
will and to do in the soul. The Angel that redeemed me from all evil, 
is the all-sufficient Friend, who wards off evil by himself satisfying the 
demands of justice and resisting the devices of malice. There is a 
beautiful propriety of feeling in Jacob ascribing to his fathers the 
walking before God, while he thankfully acknowledges the grace of 
the Quickener and Justifier to himself. The Angel is explicitly ap- 
plied to the Supreme Being in this ministerial function. The God is 
the emphatic description of the true, living God, as contradistinguished 
from all false gods. Bless the lads. The word bless is in the singular 
number. For Jacob's threefold periphrasis is intended to describe the 
one God who wills, works, and wards. And let my name be put upon 
them. Let them be counted among my immediate sons, and let them 
be related to Abraham and Isaac, as my other sons are. This is the 
only thing that is special in the blessing. Let them grow into a multi- 
tude. The word grow in the original refers to the spawning or ex- 
traordinary increase of the finny tribe. The after history of Ephraim 
and Menasseh will be found to correspond with this special prediction. 

17-22. Joseph presumes that his father has gone astray through 



504 JACOB BLESSES HIS SONS. 

dulness of perception, and endeavors to rectify his mistake. He finds, 
however, that on the other hand a supernatural vision is now conferred 
on his parent, who is fully conscious of what he is about, and therefore 
abides by his own act. Ephraim is to be greater than Menasseh. 
Joshua, the successor of Moses, was of the tribe of Ephraim, as Kaieb 
his companion was of Judah. Ephraim came to designate the north- 
ern kingdom of the ten tribes, as Judah denoted the southern kingdom 
containing the remaining tribes ; and each name was occasionally used 
to denote all Israel, with a special reference to the prominent part. 
His seed shall be the fulness of the nations. This denotes not only the 
number but the completeness of his race, and accords with the future 
preeminence of his tribe. 20. In thee, in Joseph, who is still identified 
with his offspring. 21, 22. At the point of death Jacob expresses his 
assurance of the return of his posterity to the land of promise, and 
bestows on Joseph one share or piece of ground above his brethren, 
which, says he, I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword 
and with my bow. This share is, in the original, D2'J Shekem, a 
shoulder or tract of land. This region included the parcel of the field 
where he had spread his tent (xxxiii. 19). It refers to the whole ter- 
ritory of Shekem, which was conquered by his sword and his bow, in- 
asmuch as the city itself was sacked, and its inhabitants put to the 
sword by his sons at the head of his armed retainers, though without 
his approval (xxxiv.). Though he withdrew immediately after to 
Bethel (xxxv.), yet he neither fled nor relinquished possession of this 
conquest, as we find his sons feeding his flocks there when he himself 
was residing at Hebron (xxxvii. 13). The incidental conquest of such 
a tract was no more at variance with the subsequent acquisition of the 
whole country than the purchase of a field by Abraham or a parcel of 
ground by Jacob himself. In accordance with this gift Joseph's bones 
were deposited in Shekem, after the conquest of the whole land by 
returning Israel. The territory of Shekem was probably not equal in 
extent to that of Ephraim, but was included within its bounds. 



LXXVII. JACOB BLESSES HIS SONS. — Gen. xlix. 

5. iT^sp weapon ; r. *i^S or ST?3 dig. Device, design ? r. H ,r^a sell, 
in Arab, take counsel. Habitation. 

10. pgtro lawgiver, judge, dispenser of laws. This word occurs in 



GEN. XLIX. 505 

six other places, — Num. xxi. 18 ; Deut. xxxiii. 21 ; Jud. v. 14; Ps. 
lx. 9 ; cviii. 9 ; Isa. xxxiii. 22 ; in five of which it clearly denotes 
ruler, or judge. The meaning sceptre is therefore doubtful, SiV'tiJ 
Shiloh, a softened form of *p^ , j, a derivative of b6, the ultimate root of 
nVr, cVj, and possibly oVj, and hence denoting the peacemaker, the 
prince of peace. It is not employed as an appellative noun. But it 
is used afterwards as the name of a town, now identified as Seilun. 
This town probably had its name, like many other ancient places, from 
a person of the same name who built or possessed it. 

XLIX. 1. And Jacob called his sons: and he said, Gather 
yourselves together, and I will tell you that which shall befall 
you in the after days. 2. Assemble yourselves, and hear, ye 
sons of Jacob ; and hearken to Israel your father. 

8. Reuben, my first-born art thou, my might and the be- 
ginning of my strength : the excellency of dignity, the excel- 
lency of power. 4. Boiling over as water, thou shalt not 
excel, because thou wentest up to thy father's bed : then didst 
thou defile it, to my couch he went up. 1" 39. 

5. Simon and Levi are brethren : instruments of violence 
are their weapons. 6. Into their counsel let not my soul en- 
ter, in their congregation let not mine honor join ; for in their 
anger they slew a man, and in their self-will they houghed an 
ox. 7. Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce : and their 
wrath, for it was cruel : I will divide them in Jacob, and scat- 
ter them in Israel. f 40. 

8. Judah, thee shall thy brethren praise ; thy hand shall be 
on the neck of thine enemies : thy father's sons shall bow 
down to thee. 9. A lion's whelp is Judah ; from the prey, 
my son, art thou gone up : he stooped down, he couched as a 
lion and as a lioness : who shall rouse him up ? 10. The 
sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor the lawgiver from 
between his feet ; until Shiloh come, and unto him be the 
obedience of the peoples. 11. Binding unto the vine his ass, 
and to the choice vine his ass's colt, he hath washed in the 
wine his garments, and in the blood of grapes his mantle. 
64 



506 JACOB BLESSES HIS SONS. 

12. Red are his eyes from wine, and white his teeth from 
milk. If 41. 

13. Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of seas ; and he shall 
be at the haven of ships, and his flank toward Zidon. IT 42. 

14. Issakar is an ass of bone, couching between the hurdles. 
15. And he saw rest, that it was good, and the land, that it 
was pleasant : and he bowed his shoulder to bear, and became 
subject to tribute. § 44. 

16. Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel. 

17. Dan shall be a serpent on the way, an adder on the path : 
that biteth the horse's heels, and its rider falleth backward. 

18. For thy salvation have I waited, Lord. § 45. 

19. Gad, a troop shall press on him : and he shall press on 
the heel. § 46. 

20. Gf Asher, fat shall be his bread ; and he shall yield 
royal dainties. § 47. 

21. Naphtali is a hind let loose ; he giveth goodly words. 

§ 48. 

22. Son of a fruitful tree is Joseph, son of a fruitful tree by 
a well, whose daughters run over a wall. 23. And masters 
of arrows grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him. 24. 
And his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands 
were firm ; from the hands of the Might of Jacob, from him, 
the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel, 25. From the God of thy 
father who shall help thee, and the Almighty who shall bless 
thee, are blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that 
lieth beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb. 26. 
The blessings of thy father have prevailed over the blessings 
of my progenitors unto the bound of the perpetual hills : they 
shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the brow of him who 
was distinguished from his brethren. 1" 43. 

27. Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf; in the morning he 
shall devour the prey, and in the evening he shall divide the 
spoil. 

28. All these are the twelve tribes of Israel : and this is 



GEN. XLIX. 507 

that which their father spake unto them, and blessed them ; 
each according to his blessing blessed he them. 29. And he 
commanded them, and said unto them, I am to be gathered 
unto my people : bury me with my fathers, in the cave that is 
in the field of Ephron the Hittite ; SO. In the cave that is in 
the field of Makpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of 
Kenaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron 
the Hittite for a possession of a burying-place. 31. There 
they buried Abraham, and Sarah his wife ; there they buried 
Isaac, and Rebekah his w T ife ; and there I buried Leah. 32. 
The purchase of the field and of the cave that is therein was 
from the sons of Heth. 33. And Jacob made an end of com- 
manding his sons, and gathered up his feet into the bed, and 
expired, and was gathered unto his peoples. 



From the special conference with Joseph we now pass to the parting 
address of Jacob to his assembled sons. This is at the same time 
prophetic and benedictory. Like all prophecy, it starts from present 
things, and in its widest expanse penetrates into the remotest future 
of the present course of nature. 

1, 2. And Jacob called his sons. This is done by messengers going 
to their various dwellings and pasture-grounds, and summoning them 
to his presence. And he said. These words introduce his dying ad- 
dress. Gather yourselves together. Though there is to be a special 
address to each, yet it is to be in the audience of all the rest, for the 
instruction of the whole family. That which shall befall you in the 
after days. The after days are the times intervening between the 
speaker and the end of the human race. The beginning of man was 
at the sixth day of the last creation. The end of his race will be at 
the dissolution of the heavens and the earth then called into being, and 
the new creation which we are taught will be consequent thereupon. 
To this interval prophecy has reference in general, though it occasion- 
ally penetrates beyond the veil that separates the present from the 
future creation. The prophet has his mind filled with the objects and 
events of the present and the past, and from these he must draw his 
images for the future, and express them in the current language of his 
day. To interpret his words, therefore, we must ascend to his clay, 



508 JACOB BLESSES HIS SONS. 

examine his usage of speech, distinguish the transient forms in which 
truth may appear, and hold fast by the constant essence which belongs 
to all ages. Hear, ye sons of Jacob ; and hearken to Israel your 
father. This is a specimen of the synthetic or synonymous parallel. 
It affords a good example of the equivalence, and at the same time 
the distinction, of Jacob and Israel. They both apply to the same 
person, and to the race of which he is the head. The one refers to 
the natural, the other to the spiritual. The distinction is similar to 
that between Elohim and Jehovah : the former of which designates 
the eternal God, antecedent to all creation, and therefore equally 
related to the whole universe ; the latter, the self-existent God, subse- 
quent to the creation of intelligent beings, and specially related to 
them, as the moral Governor, the Keeper of covenant, and the Per- 
former of promise. 

3, 4. Reuben, as the first-born by nature, has the first place in the 
benedictory address. My might. In times and places in which a man's 
right depends on his might, a large family of sons is the source of 
strength and safety. The excellency of dignity, and the excellency of 
power, — the rank and authority which belong to the first-born. Boiling 
over as water. That which boils over perishes at the same time that 
it is pernicious. This is here transferred in a figure to the passionate 
nature of Reuben. Thou shalt not excel. There is here an allusion 
to the excellency of dignity and power. By the boiling over of his 
unhallowed passions Reuben lost all the excellence that primogeniture 
confers. By the dispensation of Providence the double portion went 
to Joseph, the first-born of Rachel ; the chieftainship to Judah ; and 
the priesthood to Levi. The cause of this forfeiture is then assigned. 
In the last sentence the patriarch in a spirit of indignant sorrow passes 
from the direct address to the indirect narrative. To my couch he went 
up. The doom here pronounced upon Reuben is still a blessing, as 
he is not excluded from a tribe's share in the promised land. But, as 
in the case of the others, this blessing is abated and modified by his 
past conduct. His tribe has its seat on the east of the Jordan, and 
never comes to any eminence in the commonwealth of Israel. 

5-7. Simon and Levi are brethren, by temper as well as by birth. 
Their weapons. This word is rendered plans, devices, by some. But 
the present rendering agrees best with the context. Weapons may be 
properly called instruments of violence ; but not so plots. " Habita- 
tions " requires the preposition in before it, which is not in the original, 
and is not to be supplied without necessity. Into their counsel. This 



GEN. XLIX. 509 

refers to the plot they formed for the destruction of the inhabitants of 
Shekem. They houghed an ox. The singular of the original is to be 
understood as a plural denoting the kind of acts to which they were 
prompted in their passion for revenge. Jacob pronounces a curse upon 
their anger, not because indignation against sin is unwarrantable in 
itself, but because their wrath was marked by deeds of fierceness and 
cruelty. / will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel. He 
does not cut them off from any part in the promised inheritance ; but 
he divides and scatters them. Accordingly they are divided from one 
another in their after history, the tribe of Simon being settled in the 
southwest corner of the territory of Judah, and Levi having no con- 
nected territory/ but occupying certain cities and their suburbs which 
were 'assigned to his descendants in the various provinces of the land. 
They were also scattered in Israel. For Simon is the weakest of all 
the tribes at the close of their sojourn in the wilderness (Num. xxvi. 
14) ; he is altogether omitted in the blessing of Moses (Deut. xxxiii.), 
and hence obtains no distinct territory, but only a part of that of Judah 
(Jos. xix. 1-9) ; and he subsequently sends out two colonies, which 
are separated from the parent stock, and from one another ( 1 Chr. iv. 
24-43). And Levi received forty-eight towns in the various districts 
of the land, in which his descendants dwelt, far separated from one 
another. This prediction was therefore fulfilled to the letter in the 
history of these brothers. Their classification under one head is a hint 
that they will yet count but as one tribe. 

8-12. Judah, the fourth son of Jacob, comes in for the supremacy 
after the three former have been set aside. His personal prowess, the 
perpetuity of his dominion, and the luxuriance of his soil are then 
described. 8. Thee shall thy brethren praise. This is an allusion 
to his name, which signifies praise (xxix. 35). As his mother praised 
the Lord for her fourth son, so shall his brethren praise him for his 
personal excellence. Ardor of temperament, decision of character, and 
frankness of acknowledgment are conspicuous even in the blemishes 
of his early life. Tenderness of conscience, promptitude in resolve, 
capacity for business, and force of eloquence come out in his riper 
years. These are qualities that win popular esteem. Thy hand shall 
be in the neck of thine enemies. They shall flee before him, but shall 
not escape his powerful grasp. They shall be compelled to yield to 
his overwhelming power. Thy father's sons shall bow down to thee. 
Not only his enemies, but his friends, shall acknowledge his sway. 
The similar prediction concerning Joseph (xxxvii. 6-8) was of a per- 



510 JACOB BLESSES HIS SONS. 

sonal nature, and referred to a special occasion, not to a permanent 
state of affairs. It had already received its main fulfilment, and would 
altogether terminate with the lifetime of Joseph. The present announce- 
ment refers to Judah not as an individual, but as the head of a tribe in 
Israel, and will therefore correspond in duration with that common- 
wealth. 

9. A lion's whelp is Judah. In physical strength Judah is com- 
pared to the lion, the king of beasts. At first he is the lion's whelp, 
the young lion, giving promise of future vigor ; then the full-grown 
lion, exulting in his irresistible force, seizing and overmastering the 
prey, and after reaping the fruits of his victory, ascending to his moun- 
tain lair and reposing in undisturbed security. The lioness is brought 
into the comparison with propriety, as in defence of her cubs she is 
even more dangerous than the male to the unwary assailant. After 
being satiated with prey, the lion, reposing in his majesty, will not 
disturb the passer-by ; but who shall rouse him up and escape ? 

10. From his physical force we now pass to his moral supremacy. 
The sceptre, the staff of authority. Shall not depart from Judah. The 
tribe sceptre did not leave Judah so long as there was a remnant of 
the commonwealth of Israel. Long after the other tribes had lost their 
individuality, Judah lingered in existence and in some measure of 
independence ; and from the return his name supplanted that of Israel 
or Jacob, as the common designation of the people. Nor the lawgiver 
from between his feet. This is otherwise rendered, " nor the judicial 
staff from between his feet ; " and it is argued that this rendering cor- 
responds best with the phrase " between his feet " and with the parallel 
clause which precedes. It is not worth while contending for one against 
the other, as the meaning of both is precisely the same. But we have 
retained the English -version, as the term pg'rra has only one clear 
meaning ; " between the feet " may mean among his descendants or in 
his tribe ; and the synthetic parallelism of the clauses is satisfied by 
the identity of meaning. Lawgiver is to be understood as judge, dis- 
penser or administrator of law. Judah had the forerank among the 
tribes in the wilderness, and never altogether lost it. JNahshon the 
son of Amminadab, the prince of his tribe, was the ancestor of David, 
who was anointed as the rightful sovereign of all Israel, and in whom 
the throne became hereditary. The revolt of the ten tribes curtailed, 
but did not abolish the actual sovereignty of Rehoboam and his suc- 
cessors, who continued the acknowledged sovereigns till some time after 
the return from the captivity. From that date the whole nation was 



GEN. XLIX. 511 

virtually absorbed in Judah, and whatever trace of self-government 
remained belonged to him until the birth of Jesus, who was the lineal 
descendant of the royal line of David and of Judah, and was the Mes- 
siah, the anointed of heaven to be king of Zion and of Israel in a far 
higher sense than before. Until Shiloh come. This is otherwise 
translated, "until he come to Shiloh," the place so called. This is 
explained of the time when " the whole assembly of the children of 
Israel was convened at Shiloh, and set up the tent of meeting there " 
(Jos. xviii. 1). We hold by the former translation — 1. Because Shiloh 
has not yet been named as a known locality in the land of promise. 
2. Judah did not come to Shiloh in any exclusive sense. 3. His coming 
thither with his fellows had no bearing whatever on his supremacy. 
4. He did not come to Shiloh as the seat of his government or any part 
of his territory ; and 5. The real sovereignty of Judah took place after 
this convention at Shiloh, and not before it. After the rejection of the 
second translation on these grounds, the former is accepted as the only 
tenable alternative. 6. Besides, it is the natural rendering of the 
words. 7. Before the coming of Shiloh, the Prince of Peace, the high- 
est pitch of Judah's supremacy in its primary form has to be attained. 
8. On the coming of Shiloh the last remnant of that supremacy was 
removed, only to be replaced by the higher form of preeminence which 
the Prince of Peace inaugurates. And unto him be the obedience of the 
peoples. " Unto him" means naturally unto Shiloh. " The obedience " 
describes the willing submission to the new form of sovereignty which 
is ushered in by Shiloh. The word is otherwise rendered " gathering ; " 
but this does not suit the usage in Prov. xxx. 17. " The obedience " 
intimates that the supremacy of Judah does not cease at the coming 
of Shiloh, but only assumes a grander form. Of the peoples. Not 
only the sons of Israel, but all the descendants of Adam will ultimately 
bow down to the Prince of Peace. This is the seed of the woman, 
who shall bruise the serpent's head, the seed of Abraham, in whom all 
the families of the earth shall be blessed, presented now under the new 
aspect of the peacemaker, whom all the nations of the earth shall 
eventually obey as the Prince of Peace. He is therefore now re- 
vealed as the Destroyer of the works of evil, the Dispenser of the bless- 
ings of grace, and the King of peace. The coming of Shiloh and the 
obedience of the nations to him will cover a long period of time, the 
close of which will coincide with the limit here set to Judah's earthly 
supremacy in its wider and loftier stage. This prediction therefore 
truly penetrates to the latter days. 



512 JACOB BLESSES HIS SONS. 

11, 12. The exuberant fertility of Judah's province is now depicted. 
We now behold him peacefully settled in the land of promise, and the 
striking objects of rural plenty and. prosperity around him. The quiet 
ass on which he perambulates is tied to the vine, the juice of whose 
grapes is as copious as the water in which his robes are washed. The 
last sentence is capable of being rendered, " Red are his eyes above 
wine, and white his teeth above milk." But a connection as well as a 
comparison seems to be implied in the original. Judea is justly de- 
scribed as abounding in the best of wine and milk. This line picture 
of Judah's earthly abode is a fitting emblem of the better country where 
Shiloh reigns. 

13. Zebulun means dwelling, to which there is an allusion in the 
first clause of the verse. At the haven of seas. This tribe touched 
upon the coast of the sea of Kinnereth and of the Mediterranean. It 
probably possessed some havens for shipping near the promontory of 
Karmel : and its northwestern boundary touched upon Phoenicia, the 
territory of Zidon. He is placed before Issakar, who was older, because 
the latter sank into a subordinate position. 

14, 15. An ass of bone, and therefore of strength. Couching be- 
tween the hurdles, — the pens or stalls in which the cattle were lodged. 
Rest in a pleasant land he felt to be good ; and hence, rather than 
undertake the struggle for liberty and independence, he became like 
the strong ass a bearer of burdens, and a payer of tribute. He is thus 
a hireling by disposition as well as by name (xxx. 18). 

16-18. The sons of the handmaids follow those of Leah. Dan shall 
judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel. He will maintain his 
position as a tribe in the state. When threatened by overwhelming 
power he will put forth his native force for the discomfiture of the foe. 
The adder is the cerastes or horned serpent, of the color of the sand, 
and therefore not easily recognized, that inflicts a fatal wound on him 
that unwarily treads on it. The few facts in the history of Dan after- 
wards given correspond well with the character here drawn. Some 
of its features are conspicuous in Samson (Judg. xiii.-xvi.). For thy 
salvation have I waited, Lord. The patriarch, contemplating the 
power of the adversaries of his future people, breaks forth into the 
expression of his longing desire and hope of that salvation of the 
Almighty by which alone they can be delivered. That salvation is 
commensurate with the utmost extent and diversity of these adver- 
saries. 

19. Gad also shall be subject to the assaults of the enemy. But he 



GEN. XLIX. 513 

shall resist the foe and harass his rear. This brief character agrees 
with his after history. He is reckoned among the valiant men in 
Scripture (1 Chr. v. 18). 

20. Asher shall have a soil abounding in wheat and oil. He occu- 
pies the low lands along the coast north of Karmel. Hence the pro- 
ducts of his country are fit to furnish the table of kings. Gad and 
Asher are placed before Naphtali, the second son of Bilhah. We 
cannot tell whether they were older, or for what other reason they 
occupy this place. It may be that Naphtali was of a less decisive or 
self-reliant character. 

21. Naphtali is a hind let loose. The hind or gazelle is agile and 
nimble. When free on its native hills, it roams with instinctive con- 
fidence and delight. It is timid and irresolute in confinement. This 
is probably the character of Naphtali. He giveth goodly words. Here 
we pass from the figure to the reality. Eloquence in prose and verse 
was characteristic of this particular tribe. The only important his- 
torical event in which they are concerned is the defeat of Jabin's host, 
which is celebrated in the song of Deborah and Barak (Judg. iv. 5)* 
In this passage we may study the character of the tribe. 

22-26. Jacob had doubtless been made acquainted with the history 
of his beloved son Joseph from the time of his disappearance until he 
met him on the borders of Egypt. It had been the meditation and the 
wonder of his last seventeen years. When he comes to Joseph, there- 
fore, the mingled emotions of affection and gratitude burst forth from 
his heart in language that cannot be restrained by the ordinary rules 
of speech. The first thing connected with Joseph in the patriarch's 
mind is fruitfulness. The image is vivid and striking. Son of a 
fruitful tree. A branch or rather a shoot transplanted from the parent 
stem. By a well ; from which it may draw the water of life. Whose 
daughters, — luxuriant branches. Run over a wall, — transcend all the 
usual boundaries of a well-enclosed garden. This fruitfulness attaches 
to Joseph in two respects. First, he is the prudent gatherer and the 
inexhaustible dispenser of the produce of Egypt, by which the lives of 
his father and brethren were preserved. And then he is in prospect 
the twofold tribe, that bursts the bounds assigned to a twelfth of the 
chosen people, and overspreads the area of two tribes. 

23, 24. The memory then reverts to the past history of Joseph. A 

new figure is now called up. A champion is assailed by a host of 

archers. They vex him, shoot at him, and in every way act the part 

of an enemy. But his bow continues elastic, and his arms are enabled 

65 



514 JACOB BLESSES HIS SONS. 

to bend it, because he receives strength from the God of his fathers, 
" the Might of Jacob, the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel." Such is the 
rich and copious imagery that flows from the lips of Jacob. " The 
Might," the exalted upholder ; " the Shepherd, the Stone," the foster- 
ing guardian as well as the solid foundation of his being. His great 
hands upheld Joseph against the brother and the stranger. From him. 
This seems the free rendering of the word requisite to bring the two 
members of the parallel into harmony. 

25, 26. These two thoughts — the peaceful abundance of his old 
age, which he owed to Joseph, and the persecutions his beloved son had 
endured — stir the fountains of his affections until they overflow with 
blessings. From the God of thy father, — the Eternal One who is the 
source of all blessing. And the Almighty, who is able to control all 
adverse influences. Blessings of heaven above, — the air, the rain, and 
the sun. Blessings of the deep, — the springs and streams, as well as the 
fertile soil. Blessings of the breasts and the womb, — the children of 
the home and the young of the flocks and herds. Have prevailed. The 
benedictions of Jacob pronounced upon Joseph exceed those that came 
upon Jacob himself from his fathers. To Joseph is given a double 
portion, with a double measure of affection from a father's heart. Unto 
the bound of the perpetual hills. Like an overflowing flood they have 
risen to the very summits of the perpetual hills in the conceptions of 
the venerable patriarch. Of him who was distinguished from his 
brethren ; not only by a long period of persecution and humiliation, but 
by a subsequent elevation to extraordinary dignity and preeminence. 

It is to be noted that this benediction, when fairly interpreted, though 
it breathes all the fondness of a father's heart, yet contains no intima- 
tion that the supremacy or the priesthood were to belong to Joseph, 
or that the Messiah was to spring from him. At the same time Joseph 
was in many events of his history a remarkable type of the Messiah, 
and by intermarriage he, as well as many foreigners, was no doubt 
among the ancestors of the Messiah (2 Kings viii. 18, 26). 

27. Benjamin is described as a wolf who is engaged morning and 
evening, that is, all day long, in hunting after prey. He was warlike 
by character and conduct (Judg. xx., xxi.), and among his descendants 
are Ehud, Saul, and Jonathan. 

28-33. After the benediction Jacob gives directions concerning his 
burial. All these are the twelve tribes. This implies that the benedic- 
tions refer not to the heads only, but to the whole tribes. Each ac- 
cording to his blessing. All are blessed, but the form of the blessing 



GEN. L. 515 

is suited to the character of the individual. 29-32. Bury me with my 
fathers, — with Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and Leah. 
This dying command he now lays on the twelve, as he had before 
bound Joseph by oath to its performance. 33. Gathered up his feet 
into the bed. He had been sitting upright while pronouncing the ben- 
edictory address and giving his last directions. He now lies down and 
calmly breathes his last. 



LXXVIIL THE BURIAL OF JACOB. — Gen. 1. 

10. IDS Atad, the buclc-thorn. 

T T ' 

11. 0*2*3 ^3K Abel-^litsraim, mourning of Mizraim, or meadow of M. 

L. 1. And Joseph fell upon his father's face, and wept 
upon him, and kissed him. 2. And Joseph commanded his 
servants, the physicians, to embalm his father : and the phy- 
sicians embalmed Israel. 3. And they fulfilled for him forty 
days ; for so they fulfil the days of the embalmed : and Miz- 
raim mourned for him seventy days. 

4. And the days of mourning for him were past, and Joseph 
spake unto the house of Pharoh, saying, If now I have found 
grace in y6ur eyes, speak now in the ears of Pharoh, saying, 
5. My father made me swear, saying, Lo, I die ; in my grave 
which I have digged for me in the land of Kenaan, there shalt 
thou bury me. And now let me go up now, and bury my 
father, and return. 6. And Pharoh said, Go up, and bury 
thy father, as he made thee swear. 

, 7. And Joseph went up to bury his father ; and with him 
went up all the servants of Pharoh, the elders of his house, 
and all the elders of the land of Mizraim. 8. And all the 
house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his father's house: 
only their little ones and their flocks and their herds left they 
in the land of Goshen. 9. And with him went up both 
chariots and horsemen ; and the camp was very great. 10. 
And they went to the threshing-floor of Atad, which is beyond 



516 THE BURIAL OF JACOB. 

Jordan, and they held there a very great and sore lamentation: 
and he made for his father a mourning of seven days. 11. 
And the Kenaanite dwelling in the land saw the mourning in 
the threshing-floor of Atad, and they said, A sore mourning is 
this to Egypt : wherefore the name of it was called Abel-Miz- 
raim, which is beyond Jordan. 12. And his sons did unto 
him according as he commanded them. 13. And his sons 
carried him into the land of Kenaan, and buried him in the 
cave of the field of Makpelah ; which Abraham bought, with 
the field for a possession of a burying-place, from Ephron the 
Hittite, before Mamre. 14. And Joseph returned to Mizraim, 
he and his brethren, and all that went up with him to bury 
his father, after he had buried his father. 

15. And Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, 
and they said, Mayhap Joseph will hate us, and surely requite 
us all the evil which we did unto him. 1G. And they sent 
unto Joseph, saying, Thy father commanded before his death, 
saying, 17. So shall ye say unto Joseph, Ah, now ! forgive 
now the tresspass of thy brethren and their sin ; for they have 
done thee evil : and now forgive now the trespass of the ser- 
vants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they 
spake unto him. 18. And his brethren also went and fell 
down before him : and they said, Behold, we are thy servants. 
19. And Joseph said unto them, Fear not, for am I in God's 
stead ? 20. And you, ye meant evil against me : God meant 
it for good, to do as it is this day, to save much people alive. 
21. And now fear not : I will sustain you and your little ones. 
And he comforted them, and spake to their heart. 

22. And Joseph dwelt in Mizraim, he and his father's house : 
and Joseph lived a hundred and ten years. 23. And Joseph 
saw of Ephraim the children of the third generation : the chil- 
dren also of Makir the son of Menasseh were borne upon Jo- 
seph's knees. 24. And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die : 
and God will surely visit you, and bring you up from this 
land which he swarc to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. 25. 



GEN. L. 517 

And Joseph took an oath of the sons of Israel, saying, God 
will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones hence. 
26. And Joseph died, the son of a hundred and ten years ; 
and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Mizraim. 

This chapter records the burial of Jacob and the death of Joseph, 
and so completes the history of the chosen family, and the third bible 
for the instruction of man. 

1-3. After the natural outburst of sorrow for his deceased parent, 
Joseph gave orders to embalm the body, according to the custom of 
Egypt. His servants, the physicians. As the grand vizier of Egypt, 
he has physicians in his retinue. The classes and functions of the 
physicians in Egypt may be learned from Herodotus (ii. 84-86). 
There were special physicians for each disease ; and the embalmers 
formed a class by themselves. Forty days were employed in the 
process of embalming ; seventy days, including the forty, were devoted 
to mourning for the dead. Herodotus mentions this number as the 
period of embalming. Diodorus (i. 91) assigns upwards of thirty days 
to the process. It is probable that the actual process was continued 
for forty days, and that the body lay in natron for the remaining 
thirty days of mourning. See Hengstenberg's B. B. Mos. u. Aeg., and 
Rawlinson's Herodotus. 

4-6. Joseph, by means of Pharoh's courtiers, not in person, because 
he was a mourner, applies for leave to bury his father in the land of 
Kenaan, according to his oath. This leave is freely and fully allowed. 

7-14. The funeral procession is now described. All the servants of 
Pharoh. The highest honor is conferred on Jacob for Joseph's sake. 
The elders of Pharoh, and all the elders of the land of Mizraim. The 
court and state officials are here separately specified. All the house. 
Not only the heads, but all the sons and servants that are able to go. 
Chariots and horsemen accompany them as a guard on the way. The 
threshing-floor of Atad, or of the buck-thorn. This is said to be be- 
yond Jordan. Deterred, probably, by some difficulty in the direct 
route, they seem to have gone round by the east side of the Salt Sea. 
A mourning of seven days. This is a last sad farewell to the departed 
patriarch. Abel-Mizraim. This name, like many in the East, has a 
double meaning. The word Abel no doubt at first meant mourning, 
though the name would be used by many, ignorant of its origin, in the 
sense of a meadow. His sons carried him. The main body of the 



518 THE BURIAL OF JACOB. 

procession seems to have halted beyond the Jordan, and awaited the 
return of the immediate relatives, who conveyed the body to its last 
resting-place. The whole company then returned together to Egypt. 
15-21. His brethren supplicate Joseph for forgiveness. They sent 
unto Joseph, commissioned one of their number to speak to him. And 
now that our common father has given us this command. And Joseph 
wept at the distress and doubt of his brothers. He no doubt summons 
them before him, when they fall down before him entreating his for- 
giveness. Joseph removes their fears. Am I in God's stead ? that I 
should take the law into my own hands, and take revenge. God has 
already judged them, and moreover turned their sinful deed into a 
blessing. He assures them of his brotherly kindness towards them. 

22-26. The biography of Joseph is now completed. The children of 
the third generation, — the grandsons of grandsons in the line of Eph- 
raim. We have here an explicit proof that an interval of about twenty 
years between the births of the father and that of his first-born was 
not unusual during the lifetime of Joseph. And Joseph took an oath. 
He thus expressed his unwavering confidence in the return of the sons 
of Israel to the land of promise. God will surely visit. He was em- 
balmed and put in a coffin, and so kept by his descendants, as was not 
unusual in Egypt. And on the return of the sons of Israel from Egypt 
they kept their oath to Joseph (Ex. xiii. 19), and buried his bones in 
Shekem (Jos. xxiv. 32). 

The sacred writer here takes leave of the chosen family, and closes 
the bible of the sons of Israel. It is truly a wonderful book. It lifts 
the veil of mystery that hangs over the present condition of the human 
race. It records the origin and fall of man, and thus explains the co- 
existence of moral evil and a moral sense, and the hereditary memory 
of God and judgment in the soul of man. It records the cause and 
mode of the confusion of tongues, and thus explains the concomitance 
of the unity of the race and the specific diversity of mode or form in 
human speech. It records the call of Abraham, and thus accounts for 
the preservation of the knowledge of God and his mercy in one section 
of the human race, and the corruption or loss of it in all the rest. We 
need scarcely remark that the six days' creation accounts for the present 
state of nature. It thus solves the fundamental questions of physics, 
ethics, philology, and theology for the race of Adam. It notes the 
primitive relation of man to God, and marks the three great stages of 
human development that came in with Adam, Noah, and Abraham. 
It points out the three forms of sin that usher in these stages, — the fall 



GEN. L. 519—535 

of Adam, the intermarriage of the sons of God with the daughters of 
men, and the building of the tower of Babel. It gradually unfolds the 
purpose and method of grace to the returning penitent through a De- 
liverer who is successively announced as the seed of the woman, of 
Shem, of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Judah. This is the second Adam, 
who, when the covenant of works was about to fall to the ground 
through the failure of the first Adam, undertook to uphold it by ful- 
filling all its conditions on behalf of those who are the objects of the 
divine grace. Hence the Lord establishes his covenant successively 
with Adam, Noah, and Abraham ; with Adam after the fall tacitly, 
with Noah expressly, and with both generally as the representatives 
of the race descending from them ; with Abraham specially and instru- 
mentally as the channel through which the blessings of salvation might 
be at length extended to all the families of the earth. So much of 
this plan of mercy is revealed from time to time to the human race as 
comports with the progress they have made in the education of the 
intellectual, moral, and active faculties. This only authentic epitome 
of primeval history is worthy of the constant study of intelligent and 
responsible man. 






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